A Reason for Living
by SykoMonk
Summary: Naru?, Tema?, Kimi? & GaaHina At sixteen, Mitarashi Anko has had enough and flees Konoha with four year old Naruto in tow. Rated M. Hiatus until further notice. A Reason for Living Redux will be the rewritten version of this fic.
1. Prologue

**A/N: This is my third fic, one that I hope I can work on alongside my other current one, **_**Naruto – Rewrite. **_**The idea came to me a couple nights ago, though it was probably brought on from reading to many NaruAnko fics and other fics where Naruto leaves Konoha. Anyway I'm hoping this turns out good, so let's get the show started! **

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto!**

"talking" / _"thinking"_ / **"demon talking"** / _**"demon thinking"**_

**A Reason for Living**

**Prologue**

It was a warm, humid, and rather unseasonable night in October, as a young woman with bright purple hair and pale grey eyes in a tan trench coat and fishnet top ran through the forests several miles west of Konohagakure. She'd been running for a good three hours now, all to escape that unending nightmare she had had to endure for the past six years, along with a small blonde-headed boy that she was carrying on her back. The young woman, Mitarashi Anko, had made her decision to run from her home in Konoha after what she had witnessed earlier that night.

Flashback

_Anko had been returning home after an evening of _pleasant_ interrogations with Ibiki Morino, the head of the interrogation division of the ANBU, jumping from rooftop to rooftop, when she came upon a heart wrenching scene; one that she had already witnessed twice this week, On the streets below, about twenty or thirty people had cornered a small, blonde boy, with ocean-blue eyes, into a dark alley. _

_The seemingly helpless boy was wearing tattered shorts and what appeared to be a worn pillow case for clothes. As he cowered against the wall, curling into a ball, he held a bright orange-red, stuffed fox in front of him, seemingly hoping it would protect him._

_Suddenly, there was the sound of smashing glass and a small yelp of pain. One man in the crowd, obviously intoxicated, had thrown a half drunk bottle of sake at the boy, hitting his left arm. Soon, the other members of the mob were throwing whatever they had on hand at the blue-eyed child. Rocks, knives, shards of glass, and even kunai and shuriken were now being thrown; the various objects leaving scratches, bruises, and embedding themselves in the young blonde's limbs and torso._

_When the objects ceased flying for a moment, one man stepped forward from the group of jeering people, and after knocking the crying, bloodied boy's stuffed fox to one side, the man picked him up by his hair. He tossed the blonde towards the crowd, who immediately ran at the small child and started mercilessly kicking him._

_Anko watched all of this in sheer horror, as the boy was kicked relentlessly, she heard varying cries of, "demon," "monster," and "brat," spat at the boy. She soon heard the faint sound of chirping birds, followed the feeling of a large spike of chakra. She looked back in the alley and saw the man who had only moment's ago tossed the helpless boy into the maddened crowd, illuminated by a white orb of chakra in his right hand, which was sparking violently. Whether it had been the darkness of the alley, or that she was too focused on the soon to be dead blonde, she now saw that she recognized the man. The silver hair spiked off to the left, the mask that covered most of his face, the hitai-ate pulled down over his left eye, and the grey ANBU armor. It could only be one person: Hatake Kakashi._

_Then, the little boy who had finally passed out from the unimaginable amount of pain being inflicted upon his tiny body, was held up by another ninja, his Jounin vest clearly visible in the light generated by Kakashi's technique. The ninja held the boy's arms out to either side, almost as if he were to be crucified. She then heard the man shout, "Now, Kakashi, kill the demon and put an end to the suffering of this village!"_

_Time then slowed for Anko, as she saw Kakashi pull his right arm back and charge crying out, "This is for the Yondaime!!" What happened next, even she didn't completely understand why she did it at the time, but Anko leapt from the roof and towards the alley and cried, "Not another step Hatake! Sen'eijashu!" Two snakes then launched themselves from the right sleeve of Anko's trench coat and proceeded to coil themselves around Kakashi's legs, each biting into one of his ankles. As she landed, she kicked the shinobi that was holding the blonde boy back into the crowd and grabbed the small child before he hit the ground._

_He looked even worse up close. Blood and dirt were caked all over the boy's clothes, what little remained of them anyway, as well as on his arms, legs, and face; some of the blood being dried, while most of it was moist and fresh. His left arm was in ruin; the bone in the forearm had punched through the muscle, leaving the arm completely useless. There were still a few kunai and shuriken along with a shard or two of glass embedded in the boy, mostly in his arms and legs. Just holding the frail child in her arms, the snake mistress could tell his breathing was way off kilter, as some breathes were very shallow and others painfully deep. Anko could only assume that one if not both of the boy's lungs were punctured or even collapsed._

_She quietly thought to herself, _"To treat such a small kid so cruelly and horribly, even if he holds that damn Kyuubi no Kitsune, this is just too sickening." _Anko moved slightly to the left as a shuriken whizzed by her, grazing her right cheek. She turned and saw the man who had been holding the little boy now in her arms. The man shouted at her, "What the fuck are you doing snake-whore?! Let us kill that damn monster like we should have four years ago!"_

_A kunai was now pressed up against Anko's throat, as the one-eyed scarecrow had finally gotten free of the snake mistress's snakes. "Anko," he said coolly, "give me the boy now, otherwise, I can't guarantee that you'll get out of here unharmed."_

_Anko, then frowned and softly, yet harshly said to the ANBU captain, "You've become lower than dirt Kakashi, to be able to attack a defenseless child without any remorse."Then, as her blood began to boil, the snake mistress spat, "I'll never let anyone hurt this kid again. I've seen what this kid's been through and container of the Kyuubi or not, he's a defenseless child and I will_ not_ let you, or anyone else lay another finger on him!" Anko then swiftly kicked Kakashi in the groin, causing the scarecrow to drop to his knees, then she sent a few more snakes at the maddened mob, as a distraction. Swiftly grabbing the boy's stuffed fox, Anko took back to the rooftops and sped off towards her apartment._

_An hour later, Anko, with a pack full of supplies, and a bandaged up blonde child on her back, was staring down at the village of Konohagakure, from the high wall that surrounded it. "Guess this is goodbye for now," she whispered to no one, before leaping over the wall and down into the forest below, leaving behind only another silent whisper, "I'm sorry, Sandaime-sama."_

_End Flashback_

Finally stopping, the snake mistress placed the blonde boy against a tree, and smiled weakly at the sleeping child then saying, "Well Uzumaki Naruto, looks like you've given me a new reason for living."

**A/N: There you have it, the prologue's done! Well now that the editing's done I can breathe easy for a day or two. Anyway, R&R please and thank you!**

**Translations-**

**Hitai-ate: Headband**

**Sen'eijashu: Hidden Shadow Snake Hands**


	2. Ch 1:Fateful Encounters

**A/N: Alright it's time for the first chapter! I only have a vague idea at the moment for where this story will go, but I promise it won't be some pointless story in the end. I'll also willingly accept ideas and recommendations for what you all would like to happen and I promise to respond to all reviews concerning such. Alright I've blabbered enough for now so let's get rolling.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto and I ain't saying it again!**

**Chapter 1: Fateful Encounters**

Pain, unimaginably terrible pain; that's all the small, blonde headed boy, Uzumaki Naruto, could remember before he fell unconscious. As he stirred, he felt water all over his back, and that the air was heavy, think, and damp. He slowly and painstakingly stood up and looked around, only to find that he wasn't in the alley where he was mercilessly beaten, or the Sandaime Hokage's office, but in a dark, cold sewer.

"_We-were in the world am I?"_ the small boy thought nervously. Naruto then looked at his left arm, and saw not a broken limb with bone pierced flesh, but a normal, uninjured arm. The young blonde then realized that he didn't have a scratch on him; that he looked like the beating had never happened.

"**Kit…"** a dark yet somewhat caring voice said from the darkness of the sewer. **"Follow my voice Kit; I have much I need to speak to you about."**

To say that Naruto was nervous at the sound of an unknown voice calling out to him from the darkness of the sewer would've been an understatement. The blue-eyed youth was downright terrified. However, the frail boy gathered up what little courage he could muster and step by step, he trudged forward into the damp unknown.

Naruto felt as if he'd been walking for hours, though he instinctively knew it had only been a few minutes, when he entered a gigantic room. Even with the faint lighting, the young boy couldn't see either wall to his left or right, but in front of him he could see an enormous cage. In the center of one of cage's bars, was a slightly worn talisman with the kanji, "fuin." A light red mist was also present and seemed to be emitting from the other side of the cage.

The blue-eyed boy began to walk closer to the cage when he heard the dark voice again, **"So you're finally here, eh Kit?"** A dim light appeared on the side of the cage from where the voice came, revealing a large, fire-red fox with nine tails that was about the size of a small house. He sat there staring at Naruto, his blood red eyes never blinking.

The sight of the giant fox scared the poor child out of his mind, as he started to shake violently. He opened his mouth to ask a question but the words never came. That's when in a slight nurturing voice, the great fox said, **"There's no reason to be scared, Kit; I can't hurt you. By the look in your eyes, I can tell you'd like to know who I am and where we are exactly. To answer the first question, I'm the Kyuubi no Kitsune, the demon that attacked that village you call home, four years ago. As for the second, we are inside your mind."**

It took a few minutes for this all to register with the terrified child. His trembling slowly subsided, as did most of his fear, and finally he found his voice. "If were in-inside my mind, Kyuubi-san, th-then w-why are you here?"

"**Drop the formalities Kit, there's no reason for them; and as for why I am inside your mind, or rather, your body, is because of the Yondaime Hokage, he sealed me inside you to save that shithole of a village."**

"Sealed… inside me?" the blonde asked.

"**Yes, and he wanted you treated as the village's savior, yet you're treated as if you were me. I do… apologize, for the way you've been treated due to my presence."**

"So that's why everyone hates me and calls me a monster and a demon," Naruto said to himself quietly. He then looked at Kyuubi and asked, "Kyuubi, do you know what's happening to me now, outside of here?"

"**For the time being Kit, you're safe. That purple-haired female who's always eating dango has us in her apartment. She seems to be treating your injuries, most specifically, that broken arm of yours," **the demon fox replied.

"But, why would anyone help me? The only person who's ever cared for me is the Sandaime Hokage," the blue-eyed boy questioned.

"**It would seem Kit,"** Kyuubi began, **"That your village as more than one redeemable soul among its populace. It would be wise to thank her once you wake up again."** The fox then noticed that the small boy opposite him had started to cry. **"Oi, Kit, what's with the waterworks all of a sudden?"**

Between small sobs, Naruto managed to say, "I'm just happy, that I've got someone who cares for me other than the Hokage." He then looked at Kyuubi and said, "Actually I think I have two new precious people, this kind lady, and you, Kyuubi."

Out of anything the blonde in front of him could've said, this is Kyuubi and never even thought of. This frail boy who was regularly beaten because of something he didn't even know about until a few moments ago, had just claimed an unknown woman who had rescued him from the edge of death, and him, the Kyuubi no Kitsune, the strongest of all the Biju as two of his "precious people."

Kyuubi had only one thought on his mind as he contemplated all of this, _**"This kid, he's something else, to go trusting a complete stranger and a demon; but I can see why, poor kid's been alone all his life. I'll have to help him out some way in the near future."**_ The demon fox then looked at the boy in front of him and said, **"Eh, Kit; get to sleep, we don't know what tomorrow will bring for us and your other precious person."**

Naruto smiled warmly and nodded, and as he prepared to lie down on the waterlogged floor, one of Kyuubi's tails slithered through the bars of the cage, and then under the boy. The blonde snuggled into the fire-red fur and before long was sleeping in a dreamless sleep. _**"Sleep tight, Kit, you really deserve it,"**_ Kyuubi thought as he watched over the small blue-eyed boy that was his container.

Anko had been up all night keeping an eye on Naruto, the young boy had come down with a cold most likely due to blood loss, fatigue, and various other circumstances. She figured it was around nine when she noticed the blonde start to stir. As his eyes slowly fluttered open, Anko said, "Good morning Naruto, how are you feeling?" A heavy cough was the only response she got.

The young boy then tried to sit up, but immediately felt pain in his chest and left arm. A small frown came to Anko's face as she saw the boy whimper in pain. Soothingly, the snake mistress petted the blonde's lightly bruised forehead and pushed a few stray locks of hair out of his face. Softly she said, "I wouldn't try to move kid, your arm was badly broken and so were all but two or three of your ribs." The young boy nodded slightly, indicating that he understood.

Naruto watched as for the next hour, Anko went about changing the many bandages the covered him, being most careful when unwrapping and rewrapping his arm and torso. When the purple-haired kunoichi finished, she walked over to a large, black pack that was set against a tree, and began to dig through it. A moment later, Anko walked back towards the boy, with his stuffed red fox in hand. She was happy to see the boy's eyes light up at the sight of the toy. She gently set it down beside him and smiled as he pet his one and only possession lightly.

As she walked off to start fixing breakfast, she heard a soft, yet very harsh and raspy voice say, "Thank you, nee-chan." Anko turned and saw Naruto struggling to stay sitting up while using only his right arm for support. Pain was written all over his face; Anko ran to him and quickly supported him with her left arm, while placing her right hand lightly on the blonde's lap. Naruto then said, "Thank you for saving me last night nee-chan, you saved my life."

Anko immediately saw tears welling up in the boy's eyes, but soon realized that they were tears of joy and not of pain, as the small, blue-eyed boy pulled her into a one armed hug and lightly sobbed into her shoulder. Anko smiled as she brushed Naruto's spiky, golden blonde hair and said, "My name's Mitarashi Anko, Naruto, but you can call me your Nee-chan if you want." This only made Naruto cry harder, as Anko continued to brush his hair lightly, until before long he was asleep once again.

Around the same time that morning, Sarutobi, the Sandaime Hokage was reading a letter he had found on his office door when he walked in. As he finished reading the letter, the old man took a puff on his pipe and sighed heavily, thinking to himself, _"I always wondered when she would leave the village, but I never imagined she'd take Naruto with her. I can only hope that she can take care of the boy and herself and that one day, both of them will come back and forgive the village, or at least forgive me for failing them."_

Sarutobi was broken from his thoughts when Shiranui Genma, one of his many assistants, burst into the room, extremely short of breath. "What's the matter Genma, has something happened?" the Sandaime asks calmly.

Catching his breath, Genma quickly replies, "Hokage-sama, the heiress to the Hyuuga clan, Hinata-san, is missing; it appears that Hiashi-sama got angry at her yesterday during a training exercise and expelled her from the compound. One member of the ANBU reported that she was picked up by a blond female in a green jacket that read 'gamble' on the back. She hasn't been seen since."

Sarutobi's pipe immediately feel to the ground, after which he replied, "Have all available ANBU and Jounin begin a search for Hinata as well as," the Professor paused as he reached into a draw in his desk and pulled out several pictures of a blonde female, but at varying ages. "This woman, my former student and one for the three Sannin, Tsunade," he finished as calmly as possible. Genma quickly saluted Sarutobi and dashed out the door.

The old Hokage, picked his pipe up off the floor and took a long drag on it, before thinking, _"First Naruto and Anko run off, now Tsunade's _kidnapped _Hyuuga Hinata for unknown reasons almost immediately after Hiashi lost his cool with the child. I'm going to have to speak with Hiashi about this and hopefully Tsunade will return with the girl soon."_

Naruto had finally woken up again sometime after noon, only to find Anko sleeping soundlessly next to him. The young fox-boy, not wanting to wake the snake mistress or cause her any trouble, just lay there quietly watching the clouds drift by and mindlessly petting his stuffed fox. Naruto looked down at the bandages that were wrapped around his left forearm, along with two sticks that acted as a splint and smiled, not the usual fake smile he wore as a mask when he wasn't being beaten, but a true genuine smile.

The blue-eyed boy thought, _"Anko-nee-chan must have spent a long time fixing my arm; it doesn't hurt at all."_ That's when he heard rustling in some nearby bushes. Not knowing what it could be, the blonde youth quickly did the only thing his mind could think of: wake up his nee-chan. "Anko-nee-chan!" he whispered roughly, his throat feeling extremely dry and rough.

The teenage kunoichi stirred quickly when she heard Naruto's voice and asked, "What's the matter kid?" Naruto pointed towards the bushes and said quietly, "I heard something from over there, but I don't know what it is though." Anko sighed and scratched the back of her head. "Is that all kid? I thought you might be in pain or something like-" Anko stopped abruptly as she picked up a faint chakra signal that she didn't recognize.

She thought to herself, _"I thought I told the old man not to send anyone after us! Does he think that the kid would _really_ be better off in Konoha?!" _She pulled out a kunai and stood between Naruto and whatever was behind the bush. The snake mistress turned her head towards the blue-eyed boy and said, "Just sit tight Naruto whoever came after us isn't going to hurt you, and I promise I'll never let anyone take you back to that living hell!"

"And what hell would that be?" asked a rather perky, feminine voice. Anko turned and saw a blond haired woman with her hair tied back in two ponytails, wearing grey robes and a very large green jacket. Behind her, was a woman with short black hair dressed in black and white robes, and on her back, she was carrying a small dark blue haired girl.

"That hell would happen to be Konohagakure, where me and this kid have been treated like shit for as long as we can remember! Who the hell's asking anyway?!" Anko spat at the mysterious blonde.

"It's only common courtesy to state your name before asking someone theirs," the busty woman replied. "But, I guess I'll let it slide since I snuck up on you like I did. My name's Tsunade and this is my assistant Shizune. The girl resting on her back is-"

"Hinata-chan!" Naruto cried out, recognizing the young girl sleeping on the apprentice medic's back. Anko looked at the blonde who was now wincing in pain from having sat up so suddenly and asks, "How the hell do you know the Hyuuga heiress, Naruto?" The fox boy lightly smiles and says, "I played with her a few times at the playground in Konoha; she was the only kid who ever played with me, but the few times I did, I got beat up by these guys with scary white eyes."

"I see…" Tsunade said thoughtfully. The blonde medic then turned to her apprentice and said, "Shizune, wake Hinata-chan while I look at Naruto-kun's injuries." Shizune did just as her sensei asked after setting the ex-Hyuuga heiress down on the ground and lightly shaking her shoulder.

Tsunade meanwhile was examining Naruto's wounds, most specifically, his fractured arm. After completing a quick yet through examination, the slug mistress turned to Anko and asked, "Were you the one who patched this kid up?" Anko nodded slightly in response. "I have to say that you did a damn good job for someone your age, though it's nowhere near my level of skill, it's still good work."

That's when Shizune walked over with Hinata, who appeared to be half asleep, until she saw Naruto. The shy Hyuuga's eyes widened at the sight of one of her only close friends wrapped up like a mummy. With tears forming in her eyes she ran over to the fox-boy and hugged him tightly asking, "Are y-you ok, N-Naruto-kun?" She was replied with a heavy cough and Naruto choking out, "Ye-Yea Hinata-chan, but I kinda need to br-breathe." The white-eyed girl quickly let her friend go, allowing him to breathe normally. The two then began to talk about what had happened to each of them in the past twenty four hours or so, while Tsunade, Shizune, and Anko stepped off to the side to talk on their own.

Tsunade started, "So he's the Kyuubi's container, then." The snake mistress replied with a soft, "Hai…" and allowed the blonde medic to continue. "I heard that the Yondaime wanted the boy treated as a hero of the village, but just by looking at him it's pretty obvious that the villagers didn't get the message."

Anko laughed lightly and said, "Oh they got the message alright, but the asses only see the poor kid as the Kyuubi and not as its container. They almost killed him last night, too. I promised that we aren't going back until he feels ready, but I don't know if he'll ever want to go back to that place."

"So what are planning on doing, Anko-san? You can't take him to far in his current condition and it's going to be hard for you to cross the boarders with you being a Konoha-nin," the black haired medic asked.

"I plan on going to either the Land of Waves or Wind Country, for now anyway," Anko explained before asking, "But I'm curious as to why you two have the Hyuuga heiress with you."

This brought an angry scowl to Tsunade's face, as she looked over at Hinata who was far more joyful then she had been the day before. Looking back at Anko, the slug mistress explained, "I was planning on speaking to Sarutobi-sensei when I found her crying not too far from the Hyuuga compound. Most of her chakra points had been blocked and she had a few bruises on her arms and torso. My guess is that Hiashi got angry at her for not performing well during a training exercise. For as long as I live I doubt I'll ever understand the Hyuuga's ways." Both Shizune and Anko nod in agreement.

Anko's stomach then growled angrily, shattering the seriousness of the situation and earning a small chuckle from both Tsunade and her apprentice, along with a pig in a red vest at Shizune's feet that Anko only now just noticed. Collecting herself, Anko said, "Let's go eat I'm sure both Naruto and Hinata could use some food." The three kunoichi walked over towards the two children and started to prepare a late lunch.

**A/N: Well there's the first chapter, I think now that it's done I have a pretty clear idea of where I'll be bringing the story. And like I said before I'm willing to accept any and all recommendations. So R&R and I'll see you in chapter two!**


	3. Ch 2:Where to Now?

**A/N: I'd like to thank everyone for all the reviews that were posted over the past few days and for adding several ideas to a long list of… schemes that I'm planning to use later on. I'd also like to add that there is no definite partner for Naruto as of yet, and that one be decided for a good long while. When we do arrive at the point or near it I'll allow you, the readers to decide from among whatever female characters in the story I think are suitable. And I have no intention of allowing Tsunade or Shizune to be in that grouping. Now let's get on with the next chapter!**

**Chapter 2: Where to Now?**

After a night of mostly peaceful sleep, which was disturbed only a few times by Naruto awaking from either pain in his arm from the medicine Tsunade had given him or one of his many nightmares of being beaten by the Konohagakure villagers, the group of five is now eating a filling breakfast of eggs, bacon, and sausage prepared by Anko.

Naruto was the first to dig into the meal, and his eyes lit up and grew as big as saucers after his first bite. Soon, tears started to flow from his ocean blue eyes while he said, "This is the best meal I've ever had!" Anko was greatly pleased by the fox boy's comment, and even more so when the other members of the group praised her cooking as well.

After breakfast, everyone was amazed to see that Naruto was almost a hundred percent better, with only his fractured arm and now lightly bandaged torso being his only visible signs of anything had ever happened to the boy. It was then, that Anko decided to go wash the fox-boy's tent-like shirt that she had lent him in a nearby stream, so that he would at least be wearing a clean shirt until they found a town where they would be able to buy him new clothing.

When Naruto took off his shirt and handed it to Anko, Hinata and Shizune froze at what they saw. The boy's abdomen, which wasn't covered by bandages, was covered with scar upon scar upon scar. Most were small, only an inch or two long, while one extended clear across the lower half of the boy's belly, almost as if someone had tried to gut the fox-boy. Shizune noticed that this scar only just grazed the bottom of the seal on the boy's stomach, the same seal which kept the Kyuubi locked in Naruto's body. The appearance of many small scars was also present on what could be seen of his back.

Though both of them had treated the young blue-eyed boy, both Tsunade and Anko were both sickened at the sight of so many scars on the body of such a young child. When Anko had treated the boy on the night they left the village, she could have sworn upon seeing all these scars that her hate for the villagers had grown ten-fold. Tsunade was only horrified by the sight and wondered how any living being could cause such pain to someone who was so innocent.

As Anko walked off to clean Naruto's shirt and change into a different outfit, the slug mistress and her apprentice went about packing up camp, while Naruto and Hinata talked.

Sitting side by side, Hinata lightly slid a finger along the boy's largest scar. "A ninja cut me with a sword last month," the fox-boy explained. Hinata's eyes went extremely wide when he said this, and Tsunade and Shizune visible flinched as they continued their work.

The white-eyed girl's eyes soon started to water as she hugged her friend around the next. Mumbled sobs of "I'm sorry," and "I didn't know," escaped the young Hyuuga's lips as she lightly cried for the blonde's suffering.

Not completely understanding what he could do to easy the blue-haired girl's cries, Naruto hugged her back lightly and said, "It's ok Hinata-chan, Hokage-ojiisan was the only one who knew before yesterday; please don't cry." As Hinata's sobs lightened, sobs could be heard from the blonde still wrapped in her arms. Between small sobs, he managed to say, "I'm just happy that one of my precious people is here, and now I have a few more." The white-eyed girl could only guess that Naruto was referring to Tsunade, Shizune, and Anko, but never imagined that he also was referring to Kyuubi.

It was then, that Tsunade walked over towards the two and kneeling down to their eye level, put a light hand on each of their shoulders before asking, "Naruto-kun, Hinata-chan, would you two like it, if Anko-chan and I trained you two to be ninja while we travel around?" Both children's eyes widened almost to the point of bulging at the offer. Naruto had never dreamed of becoming a ninja since he had never been accepted but by a few people, and Hinata though having little aspiration for the part of the job which involved killing, had wanted to be a medic ninja before her father completely rejected her.

The two looked at each other than at the gambling addicted kunoichi next to them and gave her fierce nods of excitement. The small ninja-wannabes then jumped on Tsunade, bowling her over and tightly hugging her; Naruto being careful not to hurt his arm while doing so. From where she was finishing discarding the used firewood amongst the surrounding trees, Shizune giggled lightly.

Moments later, Anko returned with Naruto's cleaned shirt and wearing a pale orange miniskirt and a gray tank top with a black snake head on the front, that showed most of her mid drift. The snake mistress however, was still sporting her tan trench coat. Anko nearly doubled over in laughter as she watched Tsunade trying to wrestle out of Naruto and Hinata's loving death hugs.

Flicking a tear out of the corner of her right eye, the purple-headed kunoichi said, "I'm gonna guess that you told them we'll be training them to be ninja, huh?"

Tsunade sent Anko a chilling death glare before screaming, "Yes, I did, now help get these two off of me!" As soon as she got within an arm's length of the two kids, Naruto released Tsunade and jumped Anko, bowling her over much as he and Hinata had done to the slug mistress. Shizune was now leaning against a tree and holding her side in painful laughter as she watched her sensei and Anko struggle to free themselves from the hugs the two children were inflicting on them.

After about another five minutes of fierce hugs, the small band of three kunoichi and two wannabe shinobi, started moving westward, away from Konohagakure. They walked at a gradual pace, since Naruto wasn't recovered enough to travel long distances and was being carried by Anko, and Hinata was carried on Tsunade's back. As they walked through the dense forest, Tsunade started up a conversation, "There's a small village about ten miles west of us; hopefully we can get more supplies there and some clothes for Hinata-chan and Naruto-kun."

"Yea," Anko replied, "And we can rest there comfortably for the night and plan whether we should head to the Land of Waves or Wind Country." The snake mistress turned her head to look at Naruto, who she was carrying on her back, and ask how he was doing, when she realized he had fallen asleep; his tiny hands firmly gripped her trench coat and a small content small was on his face. She then realized that Hinata was also asleep on Tsunade's back, the same small smile that was on the fox-boy's face was also on hers.

"It would appear that they are both still exhausted from what transpired the other day," the black haired medic said.

"It wouldn't surprise me," the blonde Sannin began, "One was beaten to within an inch of his life and the other had a large percent of her chakra points blocked. I was amazed that Naruto-kun was able to stand and walk around after only resting for little more than a full day."

Anko actually smiled at this before saying, "This brat's got it lucky though, the Kyuubi's probably the main reason why he's able to heal so damn fast. If it weren't for the demon that's sealed inside him, he probably would have died a long time ago." Anko along with two fellow kunoichi now frowned. She then said, "I just don't understand why the Yondaime picked Naruto to be its container."

Tsunade's frown actually grew larger, she stopped suddenly and said, "I can tell you why Anko-chan; there are two reasons actually," the slug mistress now had a very serious look on her face. "First, Naruto was the only child born that day and the Kyuubi couldn't be sealed within someone with a fully developed chakra system. And second," Tsunade paused as a few tears fell down her checks, "He's the son of the Yondaime."

Anko was shocked, more so then she had ever been in her life. She turned and looked at the small boy sleeping on her back and she then realized how much like the Yondaime he really resembled. The same spiky, golden blonde hair, the ocean blue eyes; she even faintly remembered the Yondaime having the same wide, foxy grin as Naruto.

The snake mistress then dropped to her knees, then allowing Naruto to safely slid off her back, before she did something she hadn't done in years: she cried; she cried because in a way, Naruto had been abandoned and cursed by his own father, much as she had been by the snake Sannin, Orochimaru, six years ago. As hot white tears streamed down her face, she asked between heavy sobs, "What … the hell happened … to his mother?"

"She died during the birthing process; at least, that's what I've been told," Tsunade said kneeling down beside Anko; being careful not to drop the young Hyuuga on her back.

The snake mistress then slammed her fist against the ground and spat, "The kid's had no one since the day he was born; I doubt he even knows who his parents are! I can't even remember my parent's faces because of the fucking hebi-teme, but at least I know I had them!" Anko then turned around and gently picked up the small blonde before pulling him into a motherly hug.

Anko stayed like that with Naruto in her arms for what seemed like an eternity, before she finally ceased sobbing and looked at Tsunade and Shizune and said, "Let's get this kid to town and plan our next move."

Kyuubi watched from within the depths of Naruto's mind as this all unfolded. Even he, the very demon sealed by the Yondaime, didn't know or even imagine that Naruto was his son. For four long years, the demon fox had despised the Yondaime, but those feelings, upon learning his container was the son of his sealer, turned into hate; pure, raw hate. _**"Sacrificing your own kit just to defeat an enemy; not even I would sink that low. That **_**peace-loving**_** village may claim to be morally better than the others, but at its roots, it's more rotten then the foulest demon's heart!"**_ Kyuubi thought. _**"However, it looks like not all of the roots are rotten; these four females will take care of the Kit; that I can be sure of."**_

It was slightly after noon, when the small group got to the village and found the inn. Hinata had woken shortly before this when they were just outside the village, while Naruto continued to sleep even after they had gotten into their room.

Even though they had rented the largest room in the inn, it only had three beds and one chair, none of which looked all that comfortable. Anko walked over to one of the beds and set Naruto down lightly so she wouldn't wake him. She smiled at the sleeping boy and lightly brushed a hand along the whisker marks on his left check.

Tsunade walked over towards the snake mistress, who was now lightly brushing the young blonde's hair, and said to her, "Once Naruto-kun wakes up, I'll change his bandages then we can try and find some clothes for him and Hinata-chan at a store in town."

Hinata, who had been standing shyly behind the medic Sannin, looked up at her and asked, "C-can I get clothes th-that are p-pretty and not white or r-robes?" with her usually stutter.

Tsunade smiled at the small, dark blue haired girl, now realizing that as a Hyuuga her choice of clothing was most likely very limited. The blonde kunoichi knelt down and putting a light hand on the small Hyuuga's head, she replied, "Of course Hinata-chan; you can get any clothes you like, as long as we can afford it anyway." The expert medic now realized that she might end up having to go on a small break from gambling now that she was traveling in a larger group that included two young children and rambunctious teenager. She made a mental note of this and not a second later, Naruto began to stir.

As his senses came to him, the fox-boy quickly realized that he was no longer in the forest, nor was he on Anko's back, but on a bed. Not a comfortable bed mind you, but certainly more comfortable then sleeping on the cold ground in a dark alley like the blonde had done since he was kicked out of the orphanage little over a year ago. He slowly opened his eyes and saw Anko staring at him with a small smile on her face and her right hand on his head. "Anko … nee-chan?" he asked in a slight daze.

"You sleep like a damn rock, you know that kid?" the snake mistress asked back jokingly. She was happy when he smiled at her then reached up and hugged her around the neck with his right arm. The purple haired kunoichi still wasn't entirely used to this sort of interaction with people, especially with such a small child, but she admitted to herself that it felt perfectly right with Naruto.

When the blonde released his nee-chan, he asked, "Anko-nee-chan, when are we going out to get new clothes for me and Hinata-chan?" It was clear that Naruto wanted out of the large shirt that Anko had lent him and the tattered shorts which he had been wearing for several weeks now.

Tsunade replied to the fox-boy's question with, "We'll leave right after we get those bandages of yours changed." The slug mistress then removed the boy's shirt and went about removing the bandages on his torso, while the two other kunoichi present began removing the ones on the small blonde's left arm. The medic Sannin wasn't surprised at all when she saw that apart from a few new scars, there wasn't a single trace that the young fox-boy had been beaten barely two days before. After examining his ribs with a medical jutsu, Tsunade was able to confirm that all but one or two of his ribs had completely healed.

Anko and Shizune had just finished removing the bandages around Naruto's arm with causing a little discomfort to Naruto. Where the bone had pierced through the blonde's muscle and skin was now an uneven circular scar that was slightly darker in color then the surrounding skin. The chronic gambler soon examined the bone and found that it was almost completely healed, though it would probably take another good night of sleep before it was perfect. What made Naruto the happiest was that he didn't have to wear any more bandages.

After the fox-boy got his shirt back on, he looked at Tsunade and asked, "Tsunade-sama, why do I heal so fast? Is it because of…" he then looked over at Hinata with some slight discomfort, not wanting the only person his age who had tried to befriend him to run away scared because he had a demon sealed inside him.

The slug mistress saw the worry written on Naruto's face and how he looked at the dark blue haired girl; she simply answered, "Yes Naruto-kun, it's because of that." The busty blonde then thought to herself, _"How did he find out about the Kyuubi?! I thought that Sarutobi-sensei made it an S Class law that he and no one else in his generation knew about what really happened to it. I wonder… could the Kyuubi somehow have made contact with Naruto?"_

Shizune immediately noticed the distress on her sensei's face as she contemplated the young blonde's question. Out of worry, the black haired medic asked, "Is everything alright, Tsunade-sama?"

Being drawn from her thoughts, Tsunade quickly answered her student, "No, everything's fine Shizune; let's head out and find some clothes for Naruto-kun and Hinata-chan." Both children immediately started jumping with glee and quickly forced the three kunoichi out the door of their room.

After a few hours of shopping, followed by a large dinner at the town's barbeque restaurant, both children had several outfits, including two training outfits. Naruto had picked out several shirts being black, orange, or a fiery red, all having the same giant white fox on the back. All the shorts and pants the fox-boy had picked out were black and had several pockets. His two training outfits were both completely black and had built in kunai holsters in the pants. Hinata had picked out all blue and purple outfits consisting of t-shirts and shorts and pants. Her training outfits were similar to Naruto's with the only differences being their color, a dark blue, and that she had picked out tank tops as opposed to shirts.

When the group arrived back at the inn, the two children immediately crawled into the nearest bed and fell asleep hugging each other in a matter of minutes. "Pretty damn cute," was all Anko said before placing the few bags of clothes near the door and going to sit at the small table in the corner and was quickly joined by Tsunade and Shizune.

"I think we should plan where we're heading tonight, then leave tomorrow morning as early as possible," the medic Sannin suggested.

"Yea, and maybe we can start training Naruto-kun and Hinata-chan tomorrow once we've traveled a bit," the snake mistress added in. "We just need to pick where to go, Wind Country of the Land of Waves."

**A/N: Alright people this is where you decide how the story will progress, either our group goes to Wind Country and possibly to Sunagakure for an encounter with the young sand sibs or the Land of Waves to hide out for awhile and train Naruto and Hinata. You have until Friday, June 22 to decide, so get to voting!**


	4. Ch 3:Let the Training Begin!

**A/N: With a final vote of 15 to 13 Wind Country is the winner! I would like to thank all of those who voted and as for those who wanted the Land of Waves, I promise that there will be something later on. Unfortunately, that later on is an unknown amount of time away, but perhaps soon, I'll have a little fun with my favorite Kirinin and drag him and his oversized into the story for a while. I will be accepting any ideas as always and putting them to mind. So without further a due, let's get this train rolling again!**

**Chapter 3: Let the Training Begin!**

"So we'll go to Wind Country then?" asked a certain blonde kunoichi.

"Yea," replied Anko, with a heavy yawn. "It would probably be for the best since the Sandaime doesn't have me registered as a nukenin and that I've never been there before." The snake mistress then looked up at the clock on the wall seeing that it was well past midnight. She, Shizune, and Tsunade had been discussing whether going to Wind Country or the Land of Waves would be better a decision. The purple haired kunoichi then stood up and stretched, cracking several vertebrae and relieving some of the tension that had built up from sitting in that crappy wooden chair for so long.

Tsunade and Shizune stood up as well, but before any of them headed off to bed, the slug Sannin said in a slightly serious tone, "Anko-chan, Shizune and I will travel with you Naruto-kun and Hinata-chan to the boarder, but then we will have to split up."

Anko quickly cocked one eyebrow and simply asked, "Why's that?"

The blonde gambler replied, "I want to see if I can track someone down to help us with training both of them; he might even be able to teach you a thing or two. And there's also the fact that," she coughed lightly as her cheeks flushed a faint shade of pink, "I've built up a heavy gambling debt in some of the villages on the boarder over the past few months and was hoping to avoid going there for at least another six months."

Anko sweat-dropped upon hearing that, Tsunade, one of the three Sannin and the most famous disciples of the Sandaime Hokage, was running from debt collectors, because of her gambling addiction. After a heavy sigh, the snake mistress asked, "How long do you think it will take to find this person, and who is he or she?"

"He," the slug mistress began hesitantly, "Is my former teammate and another of the Sannin, Jiraiya." The blonde kunoichi, though she greatly detested the perverted white haired man, she figured he would be the best choice to teach Naruto and Hinata a varying array of jutsu, since she herself possessed few aside from her medical techniques.

Rubbing her temples lightly, knowing that the task she set upon herself would be a royal pain in the ass, she looked at the snake mistress and answered the rest of her question, "As for how long it will take, I predict about one to three months, and once I've found him, Shizune and I will wait at the border between Wind and Fire while he comes to get you. Staying in Sunagakure would probably be the best decision seeing as most of Wind Country is desert."

As Tsunade finished up, Anko immediately asked one more question, "So you'll only be with us for about a week then before you and Shizune leave to find Jiraiya-sama?"

The slug Sannin smiled slightly, "I figured you were a bit sharper than that Anko-chan. I have no intentions of leaving you, Naruto-kun or Hinata-chan so soon. I'd like to try to teach them some of the basics, and I'd like to teach Naruto-kun my variation of the Henge no Jutsu, so he can hide his scars. Maybe I'll also teach you how I can do this." She then stood up and extended her right index finger, before quickly bringing it down and hitting the top of the chair's back that she had just been sitting in. The wooden chair splintered into an uncountable amount of pieces, leaving a certain snake mistress shocked.

"Damn! Even that spandex wearing freak Kakashi calls a rival can't do that," the purple-haired kunoichi exclaimed, earning questioning looks from Tsunade and Shizune. Before either of them could ask what was Anko meant, all three women noticed that both Naruto and Hinata had woken up; both looking slightly upset and very sleepy-eyed, because of the slug Sannin's demonstration.

Anko yawned heavily and said, "Perhaps we could finish this discussion after a good night's sleep."

Both Shizune and Tsunade nodded and the latter saying, "I think that's reasonable." Before long, Naruto and Hinata were snuggled up together again, asleep, while Anko drooled into the pillow of the bed she had to herself, and Shizune struggled to fall asleep after her sensei rolled over on top of her, not even stirring slightly.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

During the night, Kyuubi decided to chat with his container over what would transpire in the coming days and months. **"If the slug user spoke true, Kit, it seems that over the next few years, you, along with the Hyuuga and your 'nee-chan', will become a very talented and amazing ninja."**

The young blonde's eyes glowed brightly, in a way that Kyuubi didn't even know the boy's eyes could, at the sound of this news. "Do you really think so, Kyuubi?" the fox-boy asked not completely believing the demon fox.

"**Kit, you're going to be trained by two of the strongest ninja in the world, if you aren't as strong as that one-eyed scarecrow that attempted to end your life by the time you're twelve, I will be very surprised. Also,"** the fire-red fox started, **"To help you along when you first start and begin to learn to use your chakra and it grows to a certain level, I'll loan you some; though I would like to speak with the three females in the morning, if you will lend me the control of your body for a few moments."**

Naruto stared worriedly at the large fox in front of him, not sure if lending the demon his body was a good idea. In a slightly distressed voice, the blonde asked, "You won't hurt them, will you Kyuubi?"

"**I promise I will never harm any of your precious ones, Kit, so long as they don't harm you; though I can't promise that you won't get hurt while training,"** Kyuubi said, finishing with a small chuckle. **"Now I believe you should get to sleep Kit, since your training might begin tomorrow." **Naruto shook his head happily, before laying down once again on one of Kyuubi's large tails and falling asleep.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

The Sandaime Hokage walked into his office much later then he usually did on a Monday morning, as it was almost noon, and upon opening the door to his office, he saw a small pink slug holding a scroll in its mouth and looking rather annoyed. Sarutobi then noticed a slim trail on his wall that vaguely read out _"This for coming in late Monkey man!"_ The aging Hokage sighed heavily wondering if the slime would come out of the wallpaper or if he'd have to have it replaced. He went over to the small slug and took the scroll from its mouth, surprised that there wasn't an ounce of slim on it. Sarutobi then looked back down at the pink mollusk, which stuck its tongue out at the Sandaime and vanished in a small puff of smoke.

Opening the scroll, Sarutobi read over it, memorizing every sentence. When he finished, he chucked the scroll out the window, which exploded not a moment afterwards. He took his seat in the chair behind his desk and took a long, slow drag on his pipe thinking, _"Tsunade _and _Jiraiya training Naruto, Hinata, and Anko. As if Anko wasn't a great shinobi to start with, but with Tsunade's abilities…"_ he shook in an unspoken fear. _"Then there's Naruto. With the Kyuubi already sealed within him, he's already set to become as strong as, if not stronger then I, but now, perhaps he may even surpass his father."_ Sarutobi would continue with his musings well into the afternoon, pondering how the growth of Anko, Naruto, and Hinata could both benefit and harm the village he was sworn to protect.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

It was barely an hour or so after the sun had risen, when the three kunoichi in the group woke up. Well two of them woke up, the third, being Shizune, looked like she had been through a rather rough night, with her eyes red and bloodshot, while heavy bags were present under them. Her short black hair that had been neat and tidy the night before, was now disheveled and stuck up and out at odd angles here and there. Tsunade noticed her apprentice's state and quickly apologized to her for anything that had happened during the night. The slug Sannin's apprentice replied by falling backwards onto the bed, asleep, before she even hit the mattress.

A few minutes later, Naruto woke and saw Anko looking through the newspaper that had probably been delivered to the room earlier that morning. The sound of running water was present from the small bathroom that was connected to the group's room, indicating that Tsunade must be showering since Shizune was in a dazed sleep on one of the other beds.

The snake mistress heard the boy sit up in the bed, mostly due to all the noise the sheets made as he did so. She looked up from her newspaper and smiled at the blond and said, "Good morning, Naruto-kun, did you sleep well?"

The fox-boy nodded happily with a big foxy grin on his face, when he remembered what Kyuubi had requested of him last night. Neither the blonde nor the purple haired kunoichi noticed that the water had stopped running in the bathroom, as Naruto said, "When Tsunade-sama comes out of the bathroom, I need to tell you and her something really important," stretching his small arms wide for emphasis.

"What do you need to talk about, Naruto-kun?" the snake mistress asked curiously.

Naruto grew quiet and said in a low voice that Anko barely heard, "It's about… you-know-what," while pointing at his stomach. The teenage kunoichi's eyes widened slightly as she realized quickly that Naruto was speaking of the Kyuubi. Not a moment later, did Tsunade walk out of the bathroom, in the same outfit she had wore the previous day.

The blonde gambling addict quickly saw the serious faces on both Naruto and Anko and quickly asked, "What's with the serious looks you two?"

The snake mistress quickly responded, "Naruto-kun needs to tell us something important concerning the Kyuubi."

The slug mistress quickly turned her head towards the blonde boy and asked, "What is it that you need to tell us Naruto-kun?"

The fox-boy hesitated for a moment before replying, "It's not really me that needs to say something…" he paused for a moment as a slightly worried look entered his eyes before finishing, "It's Kyuubi who needs to say something."

This shocked both kunoichi, since from the way Naruto was talking he had actually spoken with the demon sealed inside him. Anko quickly burst out, "How is the Kyuubi supposed to speak with us if he's sealed inside you though?!"

Naruto, was now becoming further unnerved, as he answered while slightly stammering, "He-he said he would t-take control of my b-body for a few moments."

This brought further shock and now, concern to both women at the thought of the small boy in front of them, being controlled and possibly manipulated by the demon fox that was sealed inside him. Tsunade quickly shouted, "Naruto-kun, did you ever stop to think that the Kyuubi could just be using you so he can escape from being sealed inside your body?!"

Naruto was slightly shocked by the slug Sannin's behavior, especial since she made it sound like Kyuubi was pure evil. The fox-boy quickly rose to his tenant's defense and said, "Kyuubi would never do that! The few times I've met him he's only been nice to me; he'd never try to hurt me, he promised me!"

Naruto then clutched his head and grunted in pain, as a small pulse of chakra exited his body. The blonde slumped over a little, causing Tsunade and Anko to start worrying. This small amount of worry turned to mind numbing fear when the boy sat straight up and opened his eyes. Instead of his usual, ocean-blue orbs, the fox-boy's eyes were blood red, with thin black slits in place of his normal round pupils. Anko shouted, "What have you done to Naruto-kun, Kyuubi!"

The demon now in control of the young boy's body chuckled lightly in a voice that was both deeper and far darker than the blonde's usual perky tone. He studied the two kunoichi carefully, then he said, **"Hello, Tsunade, Anko, both of you have nothing to fear, I haven't taken over the Kit's body permanently, I'll only be in control for a few moments so there is one thing I'd like to say."**

"And what would that be demon!" the snake mistress spat, still unnerved by the presence of the Kyuubi.

"**It's three things actually, the first being…"** Kyuubi trailed of a second before bowing lightly and saying, **"Thank you for keeping the Kit alive and safe."**

These were words that neither Anko nor Tsunade ever expected to hear from a demon, especially the very demon that had attacked their home village only a few years before. The blonde kunoichi, regaining her composure first, stammered, "Y-you're welcome, Kyuubi."

"**Also,"** the demon fox began, **"I'll be helping the Kit expand his chakra reserves while you're training him, by slowly converting my own demonic chakra, into his normal chakra."** Kyuubi quickly realized now that his time for controlling Naruto was almost up, so he stared Anko and Tsunade dead in the eyes and said, **"If you ever betray the Kit, his trust, or harm him with the intent kill, know that I will make you pay for it. With. Your. Lives!"** he finished coldly, with a large amount of killing intent streaming off of him. The blonde's eyes then closed and he fell back down and was fast asleep.

The demon's message appeared to have gotten true, as a few drops of cold sweat slid down Tsunade's temple, while Anko fell flat on her rear; her whole body shaking. "I've never been that scared since that teme abandoned me," the snake mistress said, with Tsunade nodding in acknowledgement.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

It was later that day, slightly after noon, when the group settled down in a large clearing, where they decided they would be spending the rest of their day. After a quick lunch of grilled fish, Tsunade stood up and said, "Well, Naruto-kun, Hinata-chan, I think it's time for your first training session." Both children's eyes lit up immediately and they started to hop giddily around the slug Sannin, earning them a small smile.

The blonde kunoichi led the two children over towards the center of the clearing, where she then walked a few feet away and said, "We'll start off with a very basic technique, the Henge no Jutsu." Tsunade slowly went through a short series of hand signs, telling the two wannabe shinobi what each one was, before holding the final sign and building up a very small amount of chakra. The slug mistress was quickly engulfed in a puff of smoke. When it cleared, there stood not the blonde kunoichi, but her assistant and apprentice, Shizune.

Both kids looked behind them and saw the same person sitting on the ground drinking tea and talking with Anko. Shyly, Hinata asked, "Tsu-Tsunade-sama?" The imposter Shizune nodded her head, before releasing the henge and changing back into her normal, blonde, busty self. Tsunade then said, "Now I want both of you to try it; Naruto you henge into Hinata, and Hinata you henge into Naruto."

Both nodded and then went through the hand signs they had been shown a moment ago, and holding the final hand sign, they both built up an amount of chakra they felt necessary before yelling out, "Henge no Jutsu!" After the smoke which had engulfed them disappeared, Tsunade had to resist the urge to laugh. Naruto had changed into a blonde, spiky haired Hinata with blue eyes, whisker marks and his clothes were unchanged. Hinata, was closer, but had failed only in changing her hair and eyes and adding the whisker marks that were unique to the fox-boy.

Both children looked at each other and screamed as soon as they saw each other, effectively ending both of their henge. Over at the camp site, Anko was rolling on the ground holding her sides, laughing and Shizune was trying desperately not to end up the same way. Tsunade lost her battle against her laughs and broke into a short fit a joyful laughs. When the smoke had cleared around the children, both were facing opposite directions and blushing heavily.

After all the laughing had ended, the slug mistress sighed to herself and said, "We've got a lot of work to do before we get to Wind Country."

**A/N: All right chapter 3's done! Please R&R and leave suggestions. The next chapter will be out in a day or so, so stay tuned! Also, I hope you enjoyed the humor I used to lighten it up a bit! See ya!**


	5. Ch 4:No Walk in the Desert

**A/N: Alright here comes the fourth chapter! Also, I'd like to clarify ages of the main characters that have been introduced so far: Naruto – 4; Anko – 16; Hinata – 3; Tsunade – 43; Shizune – 20; Sarutobi – 61. As characters are added I'll list their ages and also try to remember to mention when a character is a year older or whatever… Ok, anyway, let's get going to Wind Country!**

**Disclaimer: I know I said I wouldn't say this again but I don't own Naruto or any of its characters as they are property of Masashi Kishimoto. (Why can't I own it?!)**

**---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------**

**Chapter 4: No Walk in the Desert**

It's now early December and now for little more than a month, Tsunade has been training Naruto and Hinata in the basics of being shinobi when concerned with chakra control. Anko has been helping both kids practice with throwing shuriken and kunai, and both have become quite proficient for their age, with both of them usually hitting their target six out of ten times with shuriken and seven out of ten times with kunai. Tsunade has also within the past week started to show the young shinobi in training and the snake mistress the secret behind her inhuman strength.

Both children have also learned several basic jutsu including the Bunshin no Jutsu, the Henge no Jutsu, and the Kawarimi no Jutsu. Though with great difficulty, Naruto was able learn Tsunade's version of the Henge no Jutsu, which he now uses to hide his scars and the whisker marks on his face, and thanks to a constant output of chakra from Kyuubi, the fox-boy manages to keep it active almost constantly, except for when he himself is completely exhausted.

Right now, the group of five is about two miles east of the boarder dividing Fire Country from Wind Country. They are eating what will be their final meal together for at least a month according to the slug mistress and could be as long as three months, depending on how hard Jiraiya is to track down. The meal of grilled rabbit and some fresh fruit is eaten in an eerie silence, as visible frowns are on everyone's faces and Naruto and Hinata are seemingly on the verge of tears. The time that they've spent together over the past month or so, has caused the two young shinobi to look up to the blonde Sannin almost as a motherly figure; a sometimes harsh motherly figure, but still a motherly figure none the less.

Tsunade also is disheartened by the thought of leaving the young blonde and Hyuuga, but she knows full well that the purple haired kunoichi sitting across from her is more than capable of caring for them. Her assistant and pupil, Shizune has come to look at Anko almost as a younger sister as well as viewing Naruto and Hinata as younger siblings too.

Once they've all eaten their fill, they all move quickly in disposing of the used firewood and any scarce traces that they had ever been there. Now ready to split up, Naruto and Hinata stand beside Anko, and Tsunade and Shizune stand together, the two groups facing each other sadly. No longer being able to hold their feelings in, the dark blue haired Hyuuga and the blonde fox-boy run towards the blonde kunoichi across from them, who kneels down and embraces the two children in an unforgettable hug. As the two young shinobi sob into the slug mistress's shoulders, she lightly brushes their hair and says comfortingly, "It'll be alright you two; Shizune and I'll be back with Jiraiya and see you and Anko-chan before you know it."

After about ten minutes, the two children's sobs have ceased, but they are still being warmly embraced by Tsunade. Anko slowly walks over to the three and unties her headband and hands it to the slug Sannin, and says, "Hold on to this for me Tsunade-sama. It's probably best that I don't have a Konoha hitai-ate with me once we cross the border."

The blonde medic now stands up, with Naruto and Hinata each holding onto one of her legs each, and takes the hitai-ate and places it inside her favorite jacket. She looks the pale-eyed kunoichi in the eyes and says, "Promise me you won't let them come to harm Anko-chan. Though," she quickly glances down at the two children holding her legs and staring at her with large, puppy dog eyes, "With as good as they've gotten, I don't think that it will be much of a problem."

"You got nothin' to worry about, Tsunade-sama," Anko said letting a small smile grace her lips. The snake mistress then looks down and the two children and says in a slightly cheerful voice, "Come you two, we gotta get going so Tsunade-sama can find Jiraiya-sama." She quickly noticed that neither Naruto nor Hinata were moving an inch, so she then explained, "Come on, the sooner we get going, the sooner we'll be able to see Tsunade-sama again!" The children's small frowns now changed into faint smiles. They walked over towards Anko and with a small wave to the slug mistress; they speed off towards the boarder.

Tsunade smiled as she watched the three leave and said to her assistant, "I going to miss those three; now let's get going, Shizune, and try to track down that damn perverted teammate of mine!"

With a small bow, said black haired medic replied, "Hai, Tsunade-sama."

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

It has been two weeks, since the search for Hyuuga Hinata and Tsunade had been called off. The Sandaime, who was glad that his student and the Hyuuga heiress hadn't been caught, was rather pained to hear that the Hyuuga council had decided to remove the curse seal from a branch house member named Neji, and declared him as the new heir of the clan. This decision, ultimately had set into the minds of the council, that Hyuuga Hinata was either dead or to those of more extreme thought, pretended she had never existed.

This decision had been accepted throughout the entire clan, bar one person; Hinata's mother, who had fallen ill only a few months prior to the former heiress's disappearance. It seemed that though she wanted to believe that her only daughter was still alive, the young girl's banishment, disappearance, and ultimate sentence by the council proved too much for her already weakened body to bear. Yesterday, the day after Hyuuga Neji's induction into the Main Household, Hinata's mother, Hyuuga Hinako, died.

Though Sarutobi was pained upon receiving this news, he was glad to know that Hinako was to be given a proper burial in a few days. Now sitting in his office, the aging Hokage took a long drag on his pipe and thought, _"Hopefully, Tsunade's search for Jiraiya won't take long; I'd hate to imagine what could possibly happen to Anko, Hinata, and Naruto, while they're out alone in the deserts of Wind Country."_ Sarutobi exhaled a long stream of smoke before looking out his office window and silently praying for the safety of the three youngsters.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

The trio of Anko, Hinata, and Naruto are now less than a mile from the boarder and as they near, the snake mistress stops and turns to the two pint-sized shinobi. She then says, "I think now would be a good time to get into the clothes we bought the other day for traveling through the desert." She then reaches into one of the two packs on her back and pulls out three tan cloaks, two children sized ones and one made for a young adult. The purple haired kunoichi hands one cloak to the blonde haired boy and dark blue haired girl each, along with a fake passport for each of them.

"You two should really only change you're shirts, we don't have all day and from what I've heard, camping in Wind Country's desert in the winter isn't fun," Anko quickly explained. Naruto then reached into his small pack and pulled out a white shirt with a red fox's tail on the back, and a large, red, grinning fox head on the front. He then pulled off the long sleeve black shirt he'd been wearing and quickly slipped into the white shirt and pulled on his cloak and wrapped it around himself to keep from freezing.

By the time he had his cloak on properly, Hinata had put on a bright, teal t-shirt that had small, white flowers around the base, neck, and sleeves, and was being helped by Anko to get her cloak adjusted. After that, the teenage kunoichi took off her signature trench coat and quickly put on her own cloak. Over her usual fishnet mesh shirt, the purple haired girl had on a white tank top with what looked like two black snake fangs coming down from the collar to just around the base of her ribcage.

Once she saw that they were all ready, Anko said, "Alright you two let's get moving; I want to try to get to the town that's about a third of the way between the boarder and Suna."

Both Naruto and Hinata nodded and as they started rushing towards the boarder, the dark blue haired Hyuuga asked, "Anko-chan, how far is a third of the way?"

The snake mistress put a finger up to her chin pretending as if to really think about the question before replying, "Well, I think it's about thirty kilometers from the boarder." The fox-boy immediately tripped over his own feet then rolled a few meters before hitting a tree, face first.

Dazed, but still able to think straight, the blonde shouted out, "Th-thirty kilometers! That's too far to run in one day!"

"Don't worry, once we get tired, a _little_ friend of mine will help us out," Anko said back playfully.

All the purple haired kunoichi got as a response from the two children was them tilting their heads slightly to the right in a confused manner as they said in unison, "A friend?"

The snake mistress smirked and simply said, "You'll see what I'm talking about when the time comes; now let's get moving!"

With a sharp, "Hai!" from the two children, the group of three Konoha runaways, once again began moving towards the boarder.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

A few hours after crossing the border into Wind Country, Anko, Naruto, and Hinata had traveled about ten miles and were running across the endless sand dunes that made up most of the country. A few minutes later, the teenage kunoichi stopped and turned two the blonde fox-boy and dark blue haired Hyuuga and said, "We'll stop here and rest for fifteen minutes; though it would be better if there as a rock or cave or something to keep the sand out of our hair!" she finished with an annoyed bark.

The pale lavender eyed girl suddenly activated her Byakugan bloodline limit, much to the snake mistress's surprise. The blue eyed boy who noticed the expanded veins around his companion's eyes turned to the purple haired teenager and asked, "Anko-nee-chan, what's Hinata-chan doing?"

Anko wasn't surprised that Naruto had asked about the young Hyuuga's actions, given his great sibling-like affection for her. She calmly said, "That's the Hyuuga clan's bloodline limit, the Byakugan. I think Hinata-chan's using it to see if she can find someplace safe for us to rest."

The fox-boy calmly nodded in understanding as he watched his fellow shinobi in training's eyes move slightly from left to right back and forth for a few minutes. Soon, Hinata deactivated her Byakugan and smiled lightly before saying, "Th-there's a small c-cave over that way," she pointed to her right, "But I don't know how f-far away it is."

The purple haired kunoichi smiled and patted the little girl on the head and said, "Well it can't be too far; after all, you were able to see it even though you're only three."

"I'm going to be f-four on the tw-twenty-eighth," she said back shyly holding up for fingers.

"Anko-nee-chan," Naruto started to say before being interrupted by the snake mistress.

"Yes Naruto-kun, we'll have a party for Hinata-chan on her birthday," she told the fox-boy in a cheerful attitude. She then took off at a run quickly followed by both Naruto and Hinata. It took them only a few minutes to reach the cave, which once they were right at its entrance, seemed more like a cavern. "You sure found one hell of a cave, Hinata-chan!" Anko said in a very impressed tone and let out a cool, low whistle which echoed into the cavernous hole in the earth.

The three sat against the wall of the cavern near the entrance and talked lightly about how once Tsunade returned they'd all start to learn several new jutsu and how the blonde Sannin herself, was planning on teaching Hinata all she knew about medical ninjutsu as well as teach the basics to Naruto. She'd also mentioned something about determining their elemental type for which jutsu would suit them best. Anko already knew she was a fire type but unfortunately, she only had three katon jutsu, while the rest in her arsenal were all snake derived.

After the fifteen minutes of rest, the purple haired teenager noticed that both of the children were still slightly exhausted. She smirked widely and cracked her knuckles before saying, "I think it's time I brought out my _little_ friend." Anko then went through a series of hand signs that was unfamiliar to the two young shinobi. After the last sign, she bit her thumb causing it to bleed lightly and slammed her hand to the ground crying out, "Kuchiyose no Jutsu!" There was an enormous puff of smoke that once cleared revealed Anko standing on the head of a thirty meter long, bluish-green snake.

Both Naruto and Hinata fell back on their rears and started shaking in fear. The purple haired teenager fought to restrain her laughter as she bit her lower lip and yelled down at the two terrified kids, "Don't be scared, he won't eat you; so get up her and let's get to that village!" Nervously, both the blonde boy and dark blue haired girl complied and landed on the snake's head next to Anko. She sat down and took a scrap of rabbit jerky and fed it to the snake. The snake then took off at breakneck speed and moved so fast that if the snake mistress hadn't held onto them; both Naruto and Hinata would've been blown away.

After about four hours, the group had reached the village. After the _exhilarating_ ride, as Anko put it, she was look as good as ever. Naruto and Hinata on the other hand, were both a complete mess. Naruto's usually spiky hair had been blown back flat against his head, his eyes were puffy, red, and teary from all the sand that got in them, and he seemed to be on the verge of dropping his henge. Hinata's eyes were more or less the same, her hair was also blown back; her two bangs that hung around her eyes were flattened against the side of her head and the hair that covered her forehead was curled upwards, almost like a wave. The only reason Anko lacked the same puffy, red, teary eyes was because she knew beforehand to by a pair of sunglasses, whose lenses and frame were jet black.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

In a town on the northern end of Fire Country, rather than seeking out information on the toad Sannin, Jiraiya; a certain blonde Sannin sat at a slot machine, losing round after round after round.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

After a pleasant night's sleep, and the purchase of two pairs of jet black sunglasses, Naruto, Hinata, and Anko were traveling once again through the deserts of Wind Country on top of the back of Anko's giant snake. As they sped through the sand dunes, towards their destination of Sunagakure no Sato, only Naruto noticed a hunched figure in a black coat with red clouds on it dragging itself along the ground, with the distinct smell of blood emitting from beneath the cloak. The young boy passed it off as nothing as he and his two female companions continued on their way. Unknown to him, it was this said figure as to why Suna had been in an uproar for the past week, and had just elected its Yondaime Kazekage.

It was around ten at night when the group arrived at Suna, Naruto and Hinata had been asleep only somewhat comfortable for the past few hours. Anko woke the two and they walked to the village gates. After showing their fake passports and IDs, they made it into the village and proceeded directly towards a nearby in. For them, seeking out other temporary lodgings, as well as a private place to train within the village would have to wait till the next day.

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**A/N: Another chapter complete as well as the first sighting of an Akatsuki! I actually only realized that this would be around the time a certain puppet master axed the Sandaime Kazekage while writing that part so I said what the hell let Akatsuki make an appearance. I hope you all enjoyed it and the funny moments in this chapter because I'm sure you all will be begging for the next chapter. Well till next time; please R&R and I'll have the next chapter out on Monday or Tuesday!**

**Translations:**

**Bunshin no Jutsu: Clone Technique**

**Henge no Jutsu: Transformation Technique**

**Kawarimi no Jutsu: Body Replacement Technique**

**Katon: Fire Release**

**Kuchiyose no Jutsu: Summoning Technique**


	6. Ch 5:Suna's Lonely Container

**A/N: Alright this is probably the chapter I've been looking forward to writing for awhile now. Also, I'll list the ages of any and all major characters revealed in this chapter, and there will be a poll or two at the end of the chapter so please read that A/N. Since I revealed Sasori last chapter, I'll also be putting his age or at least what I think it is at the end of the chapter also. Alright enough of my babble, let's get chapter 5 rolling!**

**Disclaimer: You know what goes here!**

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**Chapter 5: Suna's Lonely Container**

The night at the inn in Suna went pretty normal for Anko, Hinata, and Naruto, even though the purple haired kunoichi woke once from some slight pain caused by the Ten no Juin, given to her by Orochimaru, and the fox-boy woke twice due to two of his many recurring nightmares. In the morning, the group went across the street and had a small breakfast of eggs, bacon, and toast; which the young blonde commented was nowhere near as good as the snake mistress's.

After eating, the three Konoha runaways wandered around the village as Anko quickly began to memorize which streets lead where, which districts connected to others, and so on. Eventually, about after an hour of walking, the group came upon a large playground, though it was more like one giant sandbox, which Hinata and Naruto quickly begged their teenage guardian if they could go play. Kneeling down to their eye level, the snake mistress said, "You two can go play while I look around to find us a decent place to live, but," her tone quickly went from cheerful to serious, "If any other kids ask you your names, don't say your last names; instead use mine and say that you're cousins ok?"

Both the blue-eyed boy and pale lavender-eyed girl nodded, and replied, "Hai!"

Just when they were about to run off, Anko stopped them and reached into the pocket of her trench coat. She pulled out a small handful of money and gave each of the kids three hundred ryo, then the purple haired teenager said, "There's probably a food stand around here somewhere; so when both of you get hungry go buy yourselves something, ok?"

The two quickly pocketed the money given to them and ran off towards the swings near the other end of the playground. A small smile crossed the snake mistress's face as she watched the two kids run off, then, turning on her heel, she started down one of the many sandy streets in search of a place for the three of them to live, as well as a dango shop.

As Naruto and Hinata neared the swings, they saw that there was no one there, except for a blood red haired boy wearing a cloak that was similar in color to Anko's eyes. He was just sitting on one of the swings, his left hand loosely gripping one of the ropes, while he held a brown teddy bear in his right arm. Seeing the lonely and very depressed look in his eyes, which had very dark rings under them, the two walked over towards the boy

As they neared, the blonde heard Kyuubi whisper something to him from the back of his mind, **"Kit, this kid here, he smells familiar; I think he may be a container for a Biju, much like you."** Naruto quickly took this into account as to why the boy must be all alone.

When he and Hinata were within two or three meters of the redhead, the fox-boy smiled and said, "Hello, I'm…" he paused briefly remembering that he couldn't use his real last name, so he decided to just use his first name only. "Naruto, and this is my c-cousin, Hinata; what's your name?"

To say the lonely boy was surprised that someone was actually talking to him, willingly would've been an understatement, he was practically in a state of shock. Collecting himself, the redhead said, "I'm… Gaara; it's n-nice to meet both of you."

The dark haired Hyuuga quickly noticed that the boy was very nervous, though she didn't know why. So, in order to feed her curiosity, she asked, "Why are y-you all alone, Gaara-kun?"

Gaara's eyes shot wide open at Hinata's question. He knew if he told these two people who were trying to befriend him, of the Ichibi, Suna no Shukaku, who was sealed within his body, they would probably run away in fear and avoid him like everyone else. So he decided to tell a half-truth, "I don't get along well with other people; so I stay by myself." The first part was all to true, but the second part, it wasn't that he liked to stay alone, it was that everyone in the whole village just left him alone, including his own older siblings.

While Gaara said this, Naruto could feel that the boy was lying, more or less anyway, because he knew what it was like to have a demon sealed inside of him. The blonde then knew he wanted to talk to the redhead privately, so he reached into his pocket and took out the money that Anko had given him and handed it to Hinata saying, "Hinata-chan, can you go get ice cream for me, you, and Gaara?"

The lavender eyed girl looked quizzically at her friend before nodding lightly and running over to a stand near the center of the playground where several other children were gathered.

Naruto then looked at Gaara, with a slightly serious expression and asked, "Gaara, do you…" he stopped to think which words to use before continuing, "Are you a container?"

The redhead looked at the blonde curiously for about half a second before he caught on, and his pale jade eyes opened wide. He started to shake little before saying, "Wh-why would you want to k-know?"

The fox-boy's eyes lost some of their light as he looked at the ground and said in a whisper, "Because I'm one too."

Naruto then heard Kyuubi talking to him from the back of his mind once more, **"Kit, I'd like to speak to the tanuki sealed in that boy, but we'll have to do it more discreetly then when I spoke to your nee-chan and the blonde Sannin."**

The blonde boy was curious as to how one sealed demon was to converse with another, especially in a discreet manner, as Kyuubi desired. So he quickly asked, "How are we going to do that, Kyuubi?"

The demon fox smirked to himself and calmly replied, **"Simply shake his hand and I shall do the rest."**

Nervously, Naruto held out his left hand, which Gaara only stared at curiously as he sat silently on his swing. Seeing the questioning look on his new acquaintance's face, Naruto said in a cool tone, "Shake my hand, Gaara; Kyuubi would like to talk with you and your demon."

The sand-boy's eyes widened once more, but he complied with his blue-eyed friend's request, and just before their hands met, a stream of sand appeared between them. An angered Kyuubi could be heard cursing in the back of Naruto's mind, and in response to his fellow Biju's actions, the fire red fox sent a small stream of chakra through his container's hand and blew the sand away, allowing the two small boys' hands to meet.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Naruto and Gaara quickly found themselves in a large room, with two equally large cages, one on each side of the room. In the cage behind the blonde, sat Kyuubi in all his demonic glory, while in the cage behind the redhead, was a large, tan tanuki, who had dark blue, almost violet colored swirls decorating his entire body, save his large belly. The fox smirked at his caged counterpart before saying, **"It's been too long, Ichibi, or would you prefer to be called Suna no Shukaku?"**

Shukaku's tiny yellow eyes narrowed, before he spat, **"Call me whatever the hell ya want, kitsune, but I gotta tell ya, you're the last one I expected to see all the way out here, smack dab in the middle of this Kami forsaken desert; except Sanbi, but we both know why that is."**

Kyuubi was quick to bare his fangs when the tan tanuki called him, "kitsune," which he was about to snap at him for before regaining his composure. **"We haven't the time for arguing, Shukaku; our time is short seeing how the Hyuuga will be back soon. I have but one thing to ask you, and your container as well."**

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Hinata was standing in line for ice cream, when the lavender eyes girl remembered she hadn't asked Naruto or Gaara what flavor they wanted. She worried for a moment or two, then decided to get both of them vanilla, since she knew that everyone liked vanilla.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Anko had finally found a decent looking apartment building near the Kazekage Tower, which had only one room left for rent. Much to her surprise, she discovered it was more of a luxury suite than some basic apartment, like she had had back in Konoha. At the bargain of thirty-five thousand ryo a month, she couldn't blow the chance and went straight to the manager's office, walking there, she knew confidently that with her savings of half a million and the extra fifty thousand that Tsunade had lent her, she'd have no problem surviving with the two kids for three months, maybe even four if the blonde medic took that long. After signing a few forms, using her real name since she considered it a pain in the ass to think up a fake name, even if at random, Anko left the office happier then she had been in a very long time.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

"**Well shoot then, if were so damn low on time,"** Shukaku said gruffly for both him and Gaara, who along with his fellow blonde container, had been listening quietly as the two demons snapped back and forth at each other from behind their cages.

"**This is somewhat of a proposition,"** the demon fox started, **"My container, along with the young Hyuuga, and a Jounin kunoichi, fled that cesspool of Konoha after enduring more than their fair share of maltreatment. You know as well as I, that our containers, no matter the village are treated the same. So here's my offer, would your container, along with anyone he may hold precious, like to join us?"**

Shukaku, remained silent for what felt like several minutes, though it was for only a handful of seconds before replying, **"How old's this kunoichi, anyway?"**

Kyuubi huffed, sending a stream of black smoke out of his nostrils before angrily snapping, **"You'll never grow out of your hentai ways will you? Her age is of no importance, what is, is whether you'll be joining this rag-tag group. I forgot to mention though, that the Kit and the Hyuuga shall be training under two of Sannin of Konohagakure."**

The demon tanuki tilted his head to the right before saying, **"You forget, Kyuubi, I was sealed in a fucking teapot before some old hag stuffed me in this shrimp's body four years ago! However, I do believe I've heard of one of them, he visited the village about two months ago; name was Orochimaru if I remember right."**

Kyuubi's eyes shot open at this news, he then quickly narrowed them hissing, **"That **_**snake**_** is not one of the two that will be training the Kit; he's actually the cause of the suffering of the kunoichi who's acting as the Kit and Hyuuga's guardian for the time being. But enough talk Shukaku, will you or will you not, come along?" **he finished with a small snap. The tidbit of information regarding Orochimaru that the fox-boy just heard was something that he would have to remember for later.

Shukaku put one of his large hands up to his small chin, trying to put up the image that he was thinking, which didn't fool the fire-red fox. Finally, Shukaku said, **"Sure, why the hell not? Though there is the problem of this shrimp's sister…"**

"**She's someone he holds precious I take it,"** was all Kyuubi said.

But instead of Shukaku responding, it was Gaara, who nervously said, "T-Temari is the only other p-person, other than Yashamaru-ojisan, who talks with me. Th-though she does it v-very little because otōsan doesn't like it." The redhead now had small tears welling up in his eyes; he slowly sat down and hugged his knees against his chest, crushing his teddy bear between them in the process.

The demon fox stared at Gaara for a few seconds with a sympathetic look present in his eyes, while Shukaku's were void of emotion. That's when Kyuubi said, **"The fate of Jinchuuriki, of our containers, is to be loathed, hated, feared, and unloved throughout their lives. Though they have our powers, power cannot fill the empty void in their hearts."**

The sand tanuki stared blankly at Kyuubi before he started cackling wildly, which was followed by him saying, **"So the great Kyuubi no Youkou, the strongest of the nine Biju, has grown soft. You actually care for your damn container don't you? What happen to the cold hearted bastard that you used to be, did ya lock him up in that heart you grew? If Nibi was here, she'd probably-" **

"**That's quite enough, Shukaku," **Kyuubi snapped at the hysterical demon,** "How I have changed is none of your concern, especially since I remember you running with your oversized tail between your legs last time we fought."**

"**Whatever, kitsune," **Shukaku said still laughing, though far less now after the mentioning of his defeat by the fox across from him,** "Tomorrow the shrimp will drag his sister here, hopefully the kunoichi watching your container will be able to convince that blonde banshee to come along and join this band of outcasts."**

Naruto, who had been quietly listening to everything that was being said, while giving Gaara light pats on the back to ease his sobs, finally stood up and looked the sand tanuki dead in his beady, yellow eyes and asked, "Shukaku, are you why Gaara has those black circles under his eyes?"

Said demon smirked, slowly forming a smile that almost literally stretched from ear to ear. He replied to the blonde, **"Yea, the shrimp can't sleep or I'll eat away at his personality, eventually leaving nothing but a hollow shell for me to control like a pathetic little puppet."**

"**Such is the fate of anyone you possess, right, Shukaku. Though he's stable now, in a few years, this Gaara, won't be around anymore, another 'Gaara,' perhaps one as twisted as you will be in his place,"** Kyuubi explained grimly. He then said, **"Seems like the Hyuuga is back and our time is up; though Shukaku, I'll ask you to leave you're container's mind alone and let him sleep from time to time, though of course you'd just take over his body and run amuck like the insane bastard you are, right?"**

"**Who are you calling a bastard?!" **Shukaku shouted, just before the room dissolved around Naruto and Gaara.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Naruto and Gaara found themselves back at the swings, and turned to see Hinata running towards them with an ice cream holder, containing three rather large, vanilla ice cream cones. When she was within about four or three meters of the two boys, the dark haired girl tripped, sending the container flying into the air and her falling towards the ground.

Subconsciously, Naruto moved from where he was standing next to Gaara, to the falling Hinata, faster than he could blink, while Gaara who desperately wanted to save the ice cream cones, unwillingly sent out a stream of sand that caught the holder, saving the ice cream, through the cones did get a little sandy in him doing so. Both boys smiled at each other and the lavender eyed girl started to giggle lightly.

For the next few hours, the three children played on the swings and with a large amount of help from Gaara, they built what one could've considered the world's most detailed and complex sand castle. After completing the sand castle, all three of them were very hungry, so Naruto got the remaining money from Hinata, five hundred ryo, and ran off towards the stand to get them some food, leaving the Hyuuga girl and the sand-boy all alone.

"G-Gaara-kun?" Hinata asked shyly.

"Yes, Hinata," was his simple reply.

"How c-can you control s-sand like you did w-with the castle?" was the lavender eyed girl's question.

Gaara feared being asked this question, or any other, that would force him to reveal the presence of Shukaku within him to anyone he met his own age that didn't know. He knew Naruto was probably the same way, seeing how he had sent her away earlier when they witnessed the exchange between the fox and tanuki demons. He nervously thought over what he could say, before he decided to tell the Hyuuga girl a half-truth like before. "It's a n-natural ability I have, though I'm the only person I know who can do it," was what he said.

Technically the whole statement was true, though controlling sand was more of a natural ability of Shukaku then of his. For Gaara, it was more or less a _supernatural_ ability.

Hinata's eyes light up at what the redhead said, and twiddling her forefingers together, she said, "I think it's a very cool ability Gaara-kun; I wish I had an ability like that, that I was talented at." The young Hyuuga then started to blush slightly as she said, "I r-really like you G-Gaara-kun; y-you're a lot like Naruto-k-kun, but you're also v-very different. I like you're red hair and d-dark circles th-the most."

Never before could Gaara ever remember being complimented this way; though Yashamaru often said things to cheer him up, compliments were a rarity. He was blushing heavily and about to compliment her back when Naruto arrived with two bags of food. It turned out, Naruto had gotten six grilled fish, and had nothing left over as far as money.

The three talked happily as they ate, mostly about their likes and dislikes, Naruto and Hinata were careful not mention their ninja training, while Gaara avoid talking of his father's harsh training lessons in controlling Shukaku's powers. Almost right after they were done, Anko appeared in front of the trio and startled them all, causing Gaara to subconsciously make a protective dome of sand around them.

The snake mistress raised an eyebrow at this and thought, _"How they hell did that kid do that?! I've never heard of sunanin being capable of manipulating sand to that extent."_ She then bent over and lightly knocked on the dome and said with a smile, "Naruto-kun, Hinata-chan, were going now; I wanna show you where we're staying before we go out and have dinner."

Slowly, the dome of sand fell away revealing a rather happy Naruto and Hinata and a still slightly spooked Gaara. Anko quickly asked, "Who's your raccoon-eyed friend?" pointing at Gaara who was now standing up.

Naruto was quick to respond, "His name's Gaara, Anko-nee-chan; he's a lot like me, at least that's what I heard Hinata say that to him." When he said, "like me," the blonde had pointed at his where his whisker marks would be, while what he said at the end, caused the lavender eyed girl to blush a deep crimson. Anko smirked when she saw this, though she was frowning inwardly as she caught on to what Naruto was trying to tell her without telling Hinata.

"Anyway," the snake mistress started, "Let's get going to our new home, I'm sure you'll love it; you're friend can come along to if he likes." Gaara's eyes light up when Anko said this, as they had darkened when he realized his new friends would be leaving him. Despite his desire to join them, he remembered his sister, Temari, who he wanted with him when he went with Naruto's group; although he knew it would prove difficult for him to get something of the sort to happen.

Gaara then remembered that sometimes when he didn't return home, Temari would come looking for him the next day at the playground. So after going through all this in his head, the redhead nodded fiercely and said, "I'd love to come with you three." For as long as he could remember, this was probably the best day of Gaara's life.

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**A/N: Alright; that took a few days but I finally got it all done. I hope you enjoyed the Kyuubi-Shukaku chat and the bit of GaaraHinata fluff I added. Oh and if you think I overdid Shukaku's cruelty towards Gaara please let me know. Now I've got another poll for everyone and there's no determined time as to when it will end! Out of any character apart from Haku, Zabuza, and Kimimaro who get killed during the NON-FILLER EPISODES I'd like you guys to choose who will eventually join the group later on. It's ONE VOTE PER PERSON!! **

**Introduced Character's ages**

**Gaara – 4**

**Temari – 7**

**Translations:**

**Ten no Juin: **Cursed Seal of Heaven

**Ojisan: **Uncle

**Ojiisan: **Grandfather (For clarification of the above only)

**Otōsan:** Father


	7. Ch 6:Secrets Revealed & Gaara's Neechan

**A/N: Well not as many votes I would've liked, but the polls are still open so, I'll just be patient. Also, I've gotten some remarks as to why Naruto is scarred when he wasn't in the anime. I realize that the Kyuubi would've healed Naruto so no scars were left, but I decided against that to add a bit more feel to the story. From now on since Kyuubi has made contact with him, only lethal wounds or say a blow from a move like Chidori will end leaving scars behind, so please; no more comments on the scarring. Temari makes her appearance in this chapter and perhaps a certain white haired novelist will too. I'll repeat that I'm not accepting votes for Zabuza, Haku, and Kimimaro as I've already got plans for them. And here are the polls as they stand so far:**

**Tayuya – 5 (Big lead… kinda) - One of those is mine… Hey my vote counts just as much as yours!**

**Yugito – 3 (People like Nibi I guess)**

**Tsuchi Kin – 2 (This was a surprise)**

**Abumi Zaku – 1 (Why?)**

**Kinuta Dosu – 1 (Repeat from above)**

**Jirōbō/Kidomaru/Sakon & Ukon/Anyone else - 0 **

**Now let's get this show on the roll! (I don't own Naruto…)**

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**Chapter 6: Secrets Revealed & Gaara's Nee-chan**

The walk back to their new home that evening was mostly peaceful for Anko, Gaara, Hinata, and Naruto; apart from the suspicious and curious looks that were sent their way. The whole time they walked, the young Hyuuga held the sand-boy's right hand with her left, while the snake mistress held the girl's right hand with her left. The blonde was sitting on the purple haired kunoichi's shoulders, with his head comfortably resting on the back of her head. The fox-boy just watched as they passed closing shops, vendors, and the occasional person who gave the group of four, curious stares.

When they reached the building where they were staying, Anko poked Naruto in the back of his blonde head, indicating that it was time for him to get off. With a grumble, the fox-boy reluctantly, hopped off and landed beside Hinata and Gaara. The lavender eyed girl shyly, yet quickly asked, "Wh-where's our room?"

The teenage kunoichi smiled and said, "All the way at the top," pointing at the top set of windows of the eight story tall building.

The blue eyed blonde's jaw quickly dropped to the ground as he shouted, "Nani?! We have to climb eight flights of stairs?!"

Anko chuckled lightly and retorted, "Not on your life; Tsunade-sama may have had you do that but I decided this is the time to show you a new jutsu. Besides, climbing eight flights is just a damn waste of energy to me."

At the words, "new jutsu," the fox-boy started jumping for joy before asking in a rather loud voice, "What kinda jutsu are you gonna teach us nee-chan?! Come on, show us already!"

The snake mistress started massaging her temples as soon as the little blonde started shouting. She now took a deep breath, released it in a winded sigh and proceeded to hit the rambunctious boy square on the top of the head. "Shut up and I'll show you, ok? Just no yelling, I had a long day," Anko said slightly annoyed. She then used a single hand sign and disappeared in a puff of smoke. An instant later, she reappeared on the side of the building, about three stories up. The trench coat wearing teenager then gave the three kids a playful smirk before vanishing and once again reappearing, this time, right behind Hinata.

"That's the Shunshin no Jutsu; it's useful for traveling short distances, unless you become really skilled at it; which then lets you use it to travel much longer distances. The Yondaime Hokage was one shinobi that was pretty damn skilled at it; and Uchiha Shisui, back in Konoha, even has the nickname, 'Shunshin no Shisui.'" She now noticed that Naruto's eyes were sparkling very brightly, but before the blonde had a chance to say anything, Anko said, "Perhaps tomorrow I'll let you guys try it out tomorrow, but tonight we're just going to relax." She saw the blue-eyed boy's eyes dim back to their normal selves, and watched as he started to pout.

The snake mistress then grabbed Naruto by his collar and told Hinata to hold on to one of his hands, which she quickly did while still holding Gaara's hand. The purple haired teenager quickly made the sign for Shunshin and all four of them disappeared in a large puff of smoke.

The group reappeared outside a door with the number 800 on it. Naruto, Hinata and Gaara were all coughing from the smoke created by Anko's Shunshin. With a cheerful smile on her face, the teenager said, "Here we are."

She opened the door and all three children's mouths dropped, though Gaara's never hit the floor because of his sand. The room they were looking into, wasn't some cheesy, cheap, one room apartment; the room could very well be compared to a hotel suite. The room they were looking into was obviously the equivalent of a den; the large flat screen television mounted on the wall, two tan sofas with identical indigo markings that resembled the wind, and three reclining chairs made that obvious. The floor had pristine white tiles and easily looked clean enough to eat off of.

Walking in, a large, polished oak table surrounded by several chairs, also oak, with floral cushions on the seat and back was off to the right along with a modest kitchen area; complete with a fridge, sink, dish washer, and opaque marble counter. The walls, much like the floors, were a stainless white and held only a clock to the right of the television, giving the room a slightly, hollowed-out feel.

Shyly, the dark haired Hyuuga asked, "C-can we paint the walls, th-they remind m-me of home?"

Anko smirked and replied, "Sure Hinata-chan; white's to bland a color for me anyway," she then thought for a moment before asking, "What color do you want?"

She quickly got three replies, being, "Yellow!" from Naruto, "Blue," from Hinata, and "Red," from Gaara. The snake mistress sighed and retorted, "We'll paint your rooms those colors, but how about tan or something for this room?" she finished with a slight hint of annoyance in her voice that none of the kids picked up on.

The teenager then noticed that Hinata was rubbing her eyes tiredly, while the fox-boy and sand-boy just stared at her, the latter holding an arm of his teddy bear in his right hand. She then said, "Hinata-chan if you're tired, go lay down on the couch while I get some dinner ready," then turning towards the two boys, "Naruto-kun, you and Gaara-kun can watch some TV, ok?" The three kids quickly walked over towards to sofas, the Hyuuga girl a little more slowly than her two male friends, while Anko went over to the fridge and started looking through the freezer which, along with the fridge, she had fully stocked while the kids were playing.

Before she could get anything started though, Naruto and Gaara walked over to her, the former saying, "Anko-nee-chan, we can't find a remote to turn the TV on."

Yet again she smirked lightly before saying, "It's ok; I wanted to ask Gaara-kun a few questions anyhow, about his," the snake mistress then lowered her voice so Hinata wouldn't hear if she was still awake, "tenant."

The tanuki container flinched lightly and stared at the teenager in front of him, fear evident in his jade eyes. "Wh-what do you w-want to ask me, A-Anko-san?" he asked nervously.

The dango addicted kunoichi took a dead breath, before replying, "I just wanted to know which Biju was sealed in you; I'm sure Naruto-kun's told you about Kyuubi by now, right?" she finished turning towards the blonde who nodded lightly.

Gaara looked at his fellow container who warmly smiled at him, lessening his doubts, before turning to Anko and saying, "Ichibi, the Suna no Shukaku is inside me. He keeps saying that I shouldn't be Naruto's friend because of Kyuubi."

Naruto raised an eyebrow at this before the kunoichi before the two boys said, "If that's the Biju inside you, then I guess you don't sleep a lot, eh Gaara-kun?" Anko didn't know a great deal on the Biju, but she remembered some things that her former sensei had told her about the nine deadliest demons in the world. Though she clearly remembered what he spoke of in regards to the Ichibi and the Kyuubi, the only other one she could remember anything of was the Nibi and that it was basically a giant flaming cat.

The redheaded boy looked at the snake kunoichi and softly said, "Y-yes, I don't sleep a lot. I kn-know it's been a really long time since I slept," he finished, trying to remember when it was he did exactly last sleep.

The teenager frowned and thought sadly to herself, _"This kid's got it almost as bad as Naruto. Though it doesn't look like he's ever been hurt; him not being able sleep peacefully and being awake for days on end, sure makes up for it; though I can't imagine what kind of people could honestly seal demons into such young kids consciously, knowing very well they're being damned to a lonely existence."_

That's when Naruto interrupted her thoughts, asking, "Nee-chan, who's Orochimaru? Shukaku-baka mentioned someone named that and Kyuubi got really mad when he heard it."

"**What the fuck did that brat call me!!"** said sand Biju roared inside of Gaara's head, causing the sand-boy to clutch his head in pain, dropping his teddy bear in the process. While the tanuki was busy raging and causing his host pain, a certain demon fox was chuckling from the deepest recesses of the blonde boy's mind.

As soon as the redhead began clutching his head, the snake mistress was by his side, but the fox-boy stood still, as Anko felt a familiar chakra begin to bubble up from within the blonde, who's hair quickly grew spikier and more unruly; his stubby finger nails growing out till they resembled claws, his small canines quickly enlarged into fangs, and his ocean blue eyes turned crimson red and the boy's normally round pupils became thin, black slits. Kyuubi had caused Naruto to transform like this each morning before training, by sending a larger amount of demonic chakra into the boy than normal, hoping to increase the boy's chakra supply and expand his chakra system further.

The snake mistress actually shook in fear at what she heard next, since the voice wasn't in a darkened version of the blue-eyed boy's voice, but was that of the Biju which resided inside of him. **"Stop torturing the boy, Shukaku, or I'll leave you in worse shape than I did that damn fucking snake Yamada!" **Kyuubi roared at the sand tanuki who only decided to increase the mental pain he was inflicting on his container, causing Gaara to wail even louder as he scraped his nails through his hair and across his forehead.

From wherever it came from, sand started to collect on the left side of the redhead's face and head, until it was eerily similar in shape to that of Shukaku. The boy's left eye was now fairly small, nothing more than a small, yellow circle, with five smaller blue dots, one in the center then one in each corner of the eye. It focused only on the transformed Naruto as a voice that could only be Shukaku's, as far as Anko knew, said coldly, **"What is my container to you, Kyuubi? Do you actually give a damn about his feeble life because I don't? Unlike you, I don't have to worry about dying when he dies; as long as I'm near this desert when he croaks, I can live; you however, die when your fucking host dies, unless you're forcibly extracted, in which case, your host still fucking dies!"**

"**Is that a threat, tanuki-dobe? If it is, perhaps I should enhance that seal that binds you so your host can at least sleep without having you haunt his every thought?"** the demon fox said in a warning tone, causing Shukaku to try to take a step back, only to realize he couldn't.

Then a weak, shaky, and exhausted sounding voice escaped Gaara's lips, "G-get b-b-back in y-you're cage, t-tanuki-teme!" the voice grew stronger and steadier has the sand on the redhead's head began to fall off. He then shouted, "This is my body and I won't let you torture me anymore!" A whining cry in Shukaku's voice could be heard as the last of the sand fell to the floor, which after dying down, Gaara dropped to his hands and knees with sweat running off his face profusely, as he breathed in deep, ragged breathes.

Kyuubi smirked at this and said to the young redhead, **"Pushing Shukaku back is no small feat, kid. As far as I know, none of his other containers had any form of control over him until they were adults. For you to be able to resist him, and push him back in his cage at such a young age is an admirable accomplishment." **The sand-boy smiled as his arms gave way and he fell to the floor, exhausted. **"Though it looks like you are still quite low on stamina, but at least for once in your life, you can sleep soundly without fearing that tanuki,"** Kyuubi finished, patting Gaara lightly on the back and sending some of his own demonic chakra into the boy to suppress his demon for the night.

Naruto's transformation then quickly undid itself, as the blonde returned to his normal self. It was then, that a small, quiet voice said, "Anko-chan, Naruto-kun, w-what just happened, a-and who are K-Kyuubi and Shukaku?" Both the blonde boy and the purple haired teenager turned to see, Hinata peeking around one of the sofas, visibly shaking. She had seen everything, heard everything, but understood little of it.

"_Shit!"_ was the only word to pass through Anko's head as she looked at the fox-boy next to her, his eyes showing a fear she hadn't seen in him since the morning after she rescued him.

Naruto looked up at his nee-chan, with tears starting to form in his eyes. The last person the blonde ever wanted to know about the demon inside of him, was the dark blue haired girl now standing across from him, who was shaking like a leaf. "H-Hinata-chan," he started, but he had absolutely no idea of what to say after that; all he was waiting for was her to shriek and call him a demon or monster.

But neither word ever came, all the young Hyuuga asked was, "N-Naruto-kun, p-please tell me who K-Kyuubi is; I-I've heard y-you say its n-name before when y-you're asleep." The fox-boy's eyes shot wide open when Hinata revealed this, as did Anko's. Though in the kunoichi's mind, she was slightly relieved at the moment that the lavender eyed girl hadn't connected the name that Naruto spoke in his sleep, with that of the demon fox that attacked Konoha four years ago.

The blonde meanwhile, was visibly sweating, when he finally spilled his secret to the dark blue haired girl, "Kyuubi is the Kyuubi no Kitsune that's sealed inside me, Hinata-chan, and Shukaku is another demon that's sealed inside Gaara," though his voice wasn't shaky, there was a hard sadness behind it. The fox-boy's eyes quickly darkened and became half-lidded as he stared at the floor, waiting for his friend's response.

Hinata's eyes shot open at this revelation, and it quickly became clear to her that this must have been why Naruto had been attacked and Gaara was all alone. Her small hands clenched into tight fists as she shouted at Naruto, "Why didn't you tell me, Naruto-kun?!"

Still looking at the floor with darkened, ocean blue eyes, the kitsune container said sadly, "I didn't tell you, Hinata-chan, because I thought you would hate and fear me like everyone else, thinking that I'm a demon; and that you'd want to go back to Konoha instead of travel with me."

The young Hyuuga's eyes shot open once more and slowly started to fill with tears, as she ran over to the blonde and hugged him tightly. Through her sobs, she managed to cry out, "E-even with a d-demon inside you, N-Naruto-kun, you're still Naruto-k-kun, not Kyuubi, and not a d-demon." Naruto was soon crying too as he returned the lavender eyed girl's hug and mumbled thanks and apologies to the girl who was becoming like a little sister to him.

As Anko watched this she only thought, _"If a girl who's barely out of diapers can understand something so simple, why the hell can't those fucking villagers understand it?! And not just Konoha, it's no different here in this damn sandbox, Gaara's left to himself and completely shunned because of something some ass did to him on the day he was born!"_ It was then that the snake mistress came to a realization that if Shukaku had been sealed in Gaara the same way that Kyuubi was in Naruto, then that means that there must've been someone who was sacrificed. She looked at the sand-boy who she had just placed on one of the sofas and asked herself, _"Who did they use to seal that tanuki inside you, Gaara?"_

The three kids were soon all asleep on the same sofa, with Hinata in the middle, Gaara to her right and Naruto to her left. Anko decided to just let the three sleep rather than disturb them for dinner; after all, they just looked to damn cute with each boy having their head on one of the girl's shoulders. So the snake mistress made herself a few plates of dango and then took what had to be the best bath of her life; the damn tub was big enough for two of her to lie down in and then some, and it had water jets.

After cleaning up and slipping into some boy shorts and a large t-shirt, she decided to forget about underwear tonight, the purple haired teenager checked on the three kids who were still sleeping in the same position as before. So she would be there in case any of them woke up during the night, Anko decided to sleep on the other sofa, of course after having a few shots of sake, since she had been limited to only a single trip to a bar while traveling with the blonde medic, who had joined her for some much needed stress relief.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

The blonde Sannin and her black haired assistant were still in the same town they were in the day before, as Tsunade decided that spending a few days gambling and drinking to make up for the time she hadn't in the past month was fine. After all, the busty medic had told her ex-teammate's former pupil that it could take up to three months to find her other teammate; wherever in the world he was doing his so called "research."

Meanwhile in the Land of Fire, a one of the countries more luxurious hot spring resorts, a white haired man with a single red streak on either cheek, dressed in a pale green, traditional Japanese yukata and a red vest, was peeping into the women's bath, snickering to himself as he made numerous sketches of what his eyes were feasting on.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Sarutobi was just preparing to leave his office now, after a seemingly endless day of meetings with representatives from Sunagakure in regards to the newly elected Yondaime Kazekage. The Sandaime Hokage himself had been troubled upon hearing the news of the Sandaime Kazekage's disappearance and even more so due to his body not being found and the search for it called off because of Suna's current conflict with Kumogakure. What worried the old man most about the disappearance was that the Sandaime Kazekage was a shinobi who stood on par with the Yondaime Hokage and that if such a strong ninja could vanish from the face of the earth without leaving a trance, then that could indicate that somewhere, a force powerful enough to disrupt the five great shinobi nations was gathering. Sarutobi only hoped that by the time this hidden power emerged it would not be too late, for not only Konohagakure no Sato, but for every other hidden village as well.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Somewhere in the narrow strip of land that divided the Land of Wind from the Land of Earth, a large hunched figure wearing a black coat decorated with red clouds outlined in white and a straw bamboo hat from which hung many strips of white cloth that concealed the figure's face, stood in front of a large mountain face. From the sleeves of the coat, two hands emerged and went through such a quick series of hand signs, none of them were distinguishable. After the final seal, the figure slammed his fight hand onto the mountain face, which after a moment, slowly split revealing a dark cavern. The figure slowly walked in, the back of its coat leaving a long thick line in the sand that surrounded the mountain.

Inside the cavern, after entering a rather foggy room, the figure removed its hat, revealing a heavily tanned head with black braids. The hunched man's eyes were cold, with small, pitch black pupils. His mouth covered by a black scarf was obviously unseen, and when he spoke into the foggy void of the room, he said in a raspy voice, "The Sandaime Kazekage is dead, and in my possession Leader-sama; Sunagakure no Sato is in a state of mass panic; it will be quite some time before those fools recover."

A voice from the darkness spoke in the tone of that of a leader, replying to the braided man's statement, "As I have been informed by Zetsu; you've performed an admirable job, Akasuna no Sasori; you will without a doubt be an influential aid to Akatsuki. If only your partner was as good of a contribution to our organization," the Leader's voice finished with a hint of disappointment evident in his voice.

"Like that damn snake matters anyway," a rather aged voice said, "He's only here to fulfill his own damned ends, not aid in the organization's overall goal! We could probably make a damn fortune if we just killed him off and gave his corpse to Konoha!"

"That's a rather unseemly way of speaking of one's ally Kakuzu, though it's something that I shall keep in mind if he ever attempts to betray us, after all what good are our plans if we haven't the funds to support them?" the Leader's voice came again.

"The member of Kirigakure no Sato's Seven Swordsmen, Hoshigaki Kisame, is approximately-" another voice started before being interrupted. **"Fifteen kilometers southwest of here, Leader-sama,"** yet another, rather robotic sounding voice said.

"That's very interesting news, Zetsu; someone of that caliber would prove useful in Akatsuki," the Leader retorted seemingly towards both of the voices, "Though I do prefer it if just one of you would finish a sentence without interrupting the other."

"Y**e**s, **L**e**a**d**e**r-**s**a**m**a**!"** the two voices replied together in perfect sync.

"Now Sasori-" Leader began to say before said puppet master interrupted him.

"I'm already leaving, Leader-sama, just keep that pedophilic snake away from my room, I have some unfinished puppets that might unfortunately catch his eye." With that, Sasori proceeded out the way he came, thinking to himself, _"This group has enough freaks in it already, including myself! By the time we have ten members we'll probably have some insane religious fanatic and some useless, annoying brat,"_ he mused to himself on the increasing oddity that the members of the organization, Akatsuki were. Unknown to the greatest puppet master of Suna, in Iwagakure a certain blonde woman sneezed as did a white haired, scythe wielding man in the southern part of the Land of Water.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

The next afternoon in the same park in Sunagakure, Naruto, Gaara, and Hinata were building an even more impressive sand castle than they had the day before, while Anko sat happily on a nearby bench enjoying a few plates of dango, when a blonde girl who looked about six or seven years old, with her hair done up in four pigtails, and carrying a large metal fan, quickly walked over to where the three were playing. As the girl neared the young Hyuuga, the fox-boy, and sand-boy, she shouted, "Gaara, where have you been? You never came home last night and… who are these two kids?" she finished staring at Naruto and Hinata.

The redhead looked at the female blonde and said, "T-Temari, these are my n-new f-friends, Naruto and Hinata-chan. I didn't come home last night, because I stayed with them and Naruto's nee-chan, Anko-san," he finished pointing at the purple haired teenager who was watching the conversation between the two siblings.

Temari looked at her otouto curiously and asked, "When did you make friends, Gaara?" The only reason that the fan wielding girl asked this was because, for as long as she could remember, her brother had never had friends and had always been alone due to Shukaku being sealed in him. She and their uncle Yashamaru had been the only ones to ever treat Gaara as a human, rather than some wicked monster. Though her father had told her when she was younger, that Gaara had killed her mother, Karura, when he was born, but was later told by her uncle that that her father sacrificed her to seal Shukaku inside her brother. After discovering the truth about her mother's death she avoided her father as much as possible and along with her uncle had been looking out for Gaara whenever possible.

The redhead's jade eyes darkened slightly as he replied to his sister's question, "I made friends," he started slowly then pausing for a brief moment, "When I found people who are like me and understand me," he finished with a small smile gracing his face.

This only made the teal eyed girl more curious as she asked hesitantly, "People… like you?"

Anko stood up and walked over then said, "He means people who have been shunned by their home and in Naruto's case," she looked down at the blonde briefly before finishing, "Someone who has a demon sealed inside of him."

Temari's teal eyes shot wide open as she glanced down at her fellow blonde who was only staring at the ground. She thought to herself, _"There are other people with demons inside of them like Gaara?! I thought that putting a demon in someone's body was just a crazy idea chichi-teme came up with to make Gaara into a weapon, but this kid is the same as Gaara."_ The blonde girl looked at Anko and quickly asked, "What village did you three come from anyway?"

The snake mistress stared at the teal eyed girl momentarily before saying, "Before I go off and answer that, Temari-chan, I've got something I need to tell you about your sweet otouto." Temari's headed tilted to the left slightly, most likely out of curiosity of what the teenage kunoichi meant. "Sometime between one and three months from now, me, Hinata-chan, and Naruto-kun are going to be leaving Suna, and Gaara-kun here decided he wants to join us, but only if you, his precious nee-chan, has he put it, comes along with us. So, Temari-chan, do you want to come along with us and travel and train under two of the Sannin?" Anko asked, ending her little speech.

Temari could only stare at the purple haired teenager after being asked such a life altering question. She thought to herself, _"If I leave Sunagakure with these people and Gaara, I could escape all those glares for being related to the monster; and Gaara would escape them too. Both of us would finally have some friends and we wouldn't be at the mercy of that bastard who's now the Kazekage. But what about Kankurou and Yashamaru-ojisan, what would happen to them? If Gaara and I don't go, we could probably be passing up our only chance to get out of this nightmare."_

The teal eyed blonde looked directly into Anko's eyes now that she'd finished thinking, quickly saying, "If going with you means getting me and Gaara out of our father's grasp then," she hesitated for a brief second, "Then we'll go with you, consequences be damned!" she finished pumping her right fist in the air.

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**A/N: Damn, did I just really write all of that? Well this is my longest chapter ever and I'm proud of it! Now as for the introduction of several Akatsuki members and the organization itself; your favorite S-Class Criminal organization will be playing a major part later in the story. In reference to Zetsu speaking, his white half's speech was written in normal font, while the black half's was in bold. There will be one or two more chapters before I do the time skip to where Jiraiya arrives to reunite the whole group. Finally, I want to open this poll now so I don't end up forgetting it: Haku's gender. So please R&R and vote on the character that will be saved once the short time skip goes through and on Haku's gender. I ask that if you've voted for the first poll already, please don't vote again 'cause I won't except it. Now I'll see everyone with the next chapter, later!**

**Translations:**

**Nani – What**

**Shunshin no Jutsu – Body Flicker Technique**

**Shunshin no Shisui – Shisui of the Body Flicker**

**Yamada – The Yamada no Orochi**

**Dobe – Dead last; slang for dumb ass (both fit for the way the word was used so take your pick for its meaning)**


	8. Ch 7:Let's Hear Your Story

**A/N: Thank you everyone who sent more votes in for the polls and the few who sent suggestions that I added to an already, very long list. Jiraiya and Tsunade will be coming back in either the next chapter or the one after that I need to see. As for the polls they'll be open for awhile longer so keep on voting. Now here are the current standings of said polls:**

**Haku's Gender-**

**Female: 5 (I'm not surprised in the least by the lead)**

**Male: 3 (Wow…)**

**Character Survivor (Yea corny, sue me!)**

**Tayuya: 7(It's a tie… seems like people want both to live, not that I mind)**

**Nii Yugito: 7(Read above)**

**Tsuchi Kin: 5(So close)**

**I've disqualified all others because unless so wave of votes for Zaku or Dosu come in, they're dead. Now it's time for the next chapter, so let's get going! (I don't own Naruto or anything else that is the property of Masashi Kishimoto; though I do own the idea for this story.)**

**---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------**

**Chapter 7: Let's Hear Your Story**

"This apartment rules!," Temari squealed giddily as she, Anko, Gaara, Hinata, and Naruto stepped into the place that all of them would be calling home for quite some time late that afternoon. It was then that she realized that all the walls were white and the blonde girl added, "It needs paint though."

"Yea," the snake mistress began in a lazy tone, "We're gonna work on that when we get the chance; though I have no clue when that'll be," she finished with a light sigh. The purple haired teenager looked at Temari as she bounded from one spot to another in the apartment, observing everything that seemed to interest her. Anko then shouted, "You four, get in here; I want to talk to all of you for a little bit before I make some dinner."

Said teal eyed girl's head immediately popped out from around the corner which joined the hallway connecting the bedrooms and bathroom to the main living room. As she walked out of the hallway, the blonde girl was closely followed by her redheaded brother who was holding his teddy bear, the blonde fox-boy who had his stuffed red fox on his head, and the lavender eyed Hyuuga girl who seemed to want to walk behind Gaara more than Naruto.

"What is it Anko-nee-chan?" the blue eyed boy asked curiously.

"I wanted to talk about what you asked me last night, Naruto-kun, about Orochimaru," Anko started, seemingly nervous about the upcoming conversation. "I also want all of us to get to know each other better, since we'll be living and traveling together for a _very _long time." The snake mistress then walked over towards one of the reclining chairs and started moving it across the tiled floor. In a few minutes the purple haired kunoichi had moved the three chairs and two sofas into an uneven circle and sat down onto one of the chairs before motioning for her four roommates to sit down as well.

The teenager watched as Temari climbed into the chair next to her and the other three kids climb into the sofa opposite her. Anko quickly said, "Naruto-kun go sit there," pointing at the chair to the teal eyed girl's left, "And Gaara-kun, go sit on the other sofa." The teenage kunoichi was clearly annoyed that out of the four, only Temari seemed to figure out that she wanted one body to one piece of furniture.

After the two boys each got to their assigned seats, Anko said, "Make sure Kyuubi and that insane tanuki are listening, alright?" Both Naruto and Gaara nodded and before anyone could say anything else, a small stream of sand kicked up from somewhere and a miniaturized Shukaku head was resting on Gaara's shoulder, while Naruto used the Bunshin no Jutsu and created a miniature Kyuubi. This surprised everyone, mostly due to the fact that none of them even knew that this was possible.

Shukaku was the first of the two demons to speak, or rather in his case scream, **"What the hell do you want with me you purple haired bitch, and why is that damn fox here?!"**

That's when something even more unexpected happened, the redheaded sand boy punched the miniature tanuki head square in his right eye, followed by a rather demanding, "Shut up, teme."

Everyone just stared at the pale jade-eyed boy until Naruto shouted, "Nice one, Gaara!" Kyuubi lightly chuckled, while Anko bit down on her lower lip to contain her laughter, and Temari and Hinata just continued staring in amazement.

After finally getting all her excitement under control, the purple haired kunoichi said, "We're each going to talk about ourselves and both you and Kyuubi-san are here to listen to what I have to say on Orochimaru. Also," a small smirk then crossed the snake mistress's face as she continued, "I was hoping Kyuubi-san would be able to do something in order to seal you further so Gaara-kun will be able to finally get the sleep he deserves, and to shut you the hell up."

The sand tanuki's eyes shot open as his already tiny pupils became nothing more than yellow specks in the surrounding black before he cried out, **"There's no way you can do something like that; and even if there was the fox wouldn't do it, right Kyuubi?"** he finished with his demonic voice filling with fright and nervous tension.

The fire red fox put a claw up to his chin and said, **"Who says I wouldn't, Shukaku? Getting you to be quiet for as long as Gaara lives would be a blessing I'd say,"** he finished coldly with a wicked smiling forming on his face. Shukaku's head was now shaking and quickly dissolved to nothing. **"I think now would be the best time to seal him; matters involving Orochimaru aren't much of a concern to that dobe anyway," **Kyuubi suggested.

The demon fox then turned to the blonde he was sitting next to and said, **"Naruto, I'm going to focus some of my chakra into your right hand; when I say 'now' slam your palm flat into Gaara's stomach."**

Anko and Temari merely watched intently; wanting to see exactly how Kyuubi was going to silence Shukaku so he wouldn't prove a problem later on for his redheaded container. Meanwhile, the dark blue haired girl just looked at Gaara nervously, not completely understanding everything that was going on. They all watched though, as the blonde boy's right hand started to glow a fiery red as it was soon enveloped by Kyuubi's chakra. That's when the demon fox cried out, **"Now!"** Immediately the fox-boy drove his palm toward Gaara, jumping off the sofa as he extended his arm. The sand that had formerly been Shukaku's head rose up to defend the redhead, but was blown away by the mass of chakra covering Naruto's hand.

When the blonde's palm landed square in the center of Gaara's stomach, his voice deepened as the fire red fox cried out, **"****Fūinjutsu: Biju no Sairensa!"** All the chakra that had surrounded the blue eyed boy's hand quickly pumped its way into the sand boy's body. A high pitched scream, that wasn't Gaara's nor came from the redhead's mouth, could be heard as the last of the red chakra entered the pale jade-eyed boy's system.

Gaara was clutching his stomach for a few minutes when finally he stood back up much to everyone's relief. It was then Kyuubi explained, **"That should keep him quiet for a good ten years, Gaara, so you'll be able to get all the sleep you need. Though he's sealed, your Suna no Tate should function normally." **The fire red fox then looked from the redhead to Anko and said, **"Sorry about that, Anko; I just couldn't stand him anymore."**

"What the hell are you apologizing for?" the snake mistress asked rhetorically, "Do you know how much time you've probably saved us, considering all the damn outbursts that tanuki-teme would've had?"

Inside Gaara, said tanuki was writhing about in complete frustration, the new seal Kyuubi had placed on him prevent him from communicating with Gaara, or anyone else for that matter, but it still allowed him to hear every single word spoken that the sand boy heard. _**"Damn you, Kyuubi!"**_ the one-tailed demon roared in his head, _**"If I ever get out of here, you're going to pay! You hear me, PAY!!"**_ Anyone who actually heard these thoughts would probably think that Shukaku had finally gone off the deep end.

"**That's a definite probability, one I'd rather not explore though,"** Kyuubi stated, **"Now, I believe we should get back to what you had to say on Orochimaru, Anko."**

The snake mistress nodded and began, "Well, as you probably already know, Orochimaru is the highest ranked nukenin from Konoha; he is one of the three Sannin, after all. The hebi-teme is obsessed with seeking immortality, and while he was still a shinobi of Konoha, he kidnapped people to use as experiments, and we're talking a hell of a lot of people here; from what little I remember, he must've kidnapped about three hundred villagers and shinobi altogether," Anko finished with a frown slowly replacing the smirk that had previously adorn her face.

That's when Naruto spoke up; asking, "How come you know so much about Orochimaru, Anko-nee-chan?"

The teenager sighed heavily before saying, "I suppose it was only a matter of time before you would end up finding out anyway, Naruto-kun. I only know so much about Orochimaru because," she stopped as a very pained look entered her eyes. The snake mistress looked slowly from Gaara, to Hinata, to the blonde fox-boy, to Temari, before finally saying, "Orochimaru was my sensei up until he left the village a little less than six years ago."

"**So that would explain that cesspool's hatred for you, correct, Anko?" **Kyuubi inquired, only earning a small nod from said Jounin.

"I remember very little from before I was abandoned in the Land of Sea by him. Shortly before that, he placed on me, along with nine other of his students this, Ten no Juin," she finished, letting her coat slip off her left shoulder slightly so she could so those present the triple tomoe seal on left side of the back of her neck. "Out of the ten he placed this damned mark on, I was the only one who lived, and even now, I still wake up in the middle of the night because of this piece of shit!" she roared, scratching her right hand over the seal roughly.

"**So it would seem,"** the demon fox started, **"That all of you hold something, if even the smallest thing against your villages. Naruto and Anko have been shunned because of things beyond their control, as has Gaara. Hinata was rejected by her own father because she simply lacked the will to try to injure her own family during training. But I know nothing of what Temari here, is plagued by, though I'm sure there is something,"** Kyuubi said, finishing his summarization of what led to each person joining this rag-tag group.

The sandy blonde girl looked slightly shocked that Kyuubi had realized that there was something even for her that was driving her to stay by her brother's side. After a moment or two, the teal eyed girl said, "I'm here because I don't want to leave Gaara alone; he's my otouto, demon container or not. Also," her voice became somewhat shaky as she continued, "I can't for give my damn father for doing something so horrible to Gaara, and I'll never forgive the village for making such as bastard Kazekage!"

The fire red fox chuckled lightly, saying, **"Interesting choice of words, girl; it would seem, that no matter the village, fathers care for their children so little that they'll seal demons in their bodies just to protect it or give it strength,"** Kyuubi immediately slammed his mouth shut realizing what he just said earning curious looks from everyone apart from Anko who was glaring at him with a "what the hell were you thinking?!" look.

Much to both the fox and the snake mistress's dismay, Naruto was the first to ask a question, "Anko-nee-chan, Kyuubi said 'fathers' but the person who put Kyuubi in me was-"

"The Yondaime Hokage, Kazama Arashi," Anko interrupted, taking her eyes off the golden blonde momentarily before ending, "Your father, Naruto."

All of the kids' eyes became as wide as saucers as the sandy blonde girl, the redheaded boy, and the dark blue haired girl all looked at the ocean blue eyed boy. Naruto's eyes quickly narrowed as he shouted at the teenage kunoichi, "How long have you known?!" He jumped from the chair he was sitting on and landed on his feet on Anko's stomach and quickly grabbed either side of her trench coat's collar and shouted again, "How long have you known, Anko?!"

Said purple haired teenager let her eyes drift down to the left, towards the floor as she quietly responded, "Since the day after we ran into Tsunade-sama, Shizune-chan, and Hinata-chan."

The fox-boy then reeled his head toward the bunshin of Kyuubi and roared, "Did you know too?!"

The fox only nodded saying, **"You were asleep when Tsunade said it and well within earshot, so I was able to hear it. I felt it wasn't my place to say anything, especially since I am the indirect cause of your father's death, Kit."**

Naruto turned back to Anko and just before he shouted at her, with the little sand he had present, Gaara managed to grab the golden blonde's wrists and ankles and pull him off of the snake mistress saying, "That's enough Naruto!" Temari only watched as the fox-boy struggled against his sandy restraints, while Gaara leered at him, trying his hardest not to hurt his new friend while still keeping him from moving around. Hinata had shrunken into the sofa she was sitting on with her face buried against her knees and Kyuubi just sat on the arm of the chair where Naruto had been sitting. Little by little, the blue eyed boy managed to sit up at least, though he was still bound by the sand with his wrists held together behind his back and his ankles bonded together.

Finally, after recovering from the initial shock of the golden blonde's actions, Anko stood up and taking the one or two steps needed to reach him, raised her right hand and slapped the fox-boy across the left side of his face as hard as she could, sending him reeling. Glaring at him coldly, the snake mistress boomed, "Don't you think the reason you weren't told about Yondaime-sama being your father was because Tsunade-sama knew you'd react this way?! Think be for you act Naruto-baka; because once we start traveling, hasty and reckless actions. Will. Get. You. Killed!!"

The golden blonde was quaking in fear as he looked into his nee-chan's cold, pale eyes; it was the same fear that Anko remembered seeing when she saw him being chased by shinobi or the villagers. Anko kneeled down in front of the fox-boy who was backed up against the sofa where Hinata was curled up crying with Gaara now by her side who, along with Kyuubi and Temari, wordlessly continued watching the confrontation between the snake mistress and the golden blonde.

With the purple haired kunoichi right in front of him, Naruto closed his eyes and waited for her to beat him senseless, but instead, he was pulled into a loving hug, which quickly dispersed the blue eyed boy's fears and insecurities. As Anko held him, a few tears escaped her pale eyes as she said, "I'm sorry, Naruto; I'd didn't want to scare you, only calm you down; please forgive me 'cause I'd hate having you mad or angry at me." Before long, Hinata, Gaara, and even Temari joined in, and held one another tight. Despite their differences, they were now, more or less, a family, a rather unorthodox family, but a family none the less.

Kyuubi just kept sitting on the arm of the chair and mused to himself. _**"If I were a kage bunshin I'd join in and take a picture, but Naruto hasn't learned that yet, though I doubt it'll be long before he does."**_

That night after dinner, watching some television, and for Anko, enjoying some before bed sake, the five ended up sleeping on the two sofas rather than the beds that were still untouched. Anko was asleep on her back, with only a very oversized white shirt and black boy shorts for clothing. Naruto had only managed to get on some black shorts of his own, before he fell asleep; Anko allowed him to lie on top of her and ended up letting him use her ample breasts for a pillow.

Gaara had borrowed a plain red t-shirt and black pajama bottoms from Naruto since they were roughly the same height. Hinata and Temari hadn't changed before the Hyuuga girl fell asleep and Temari realized that she had nothing else to wear. The three were on the other sofa with the redhead between the sandy blonde and the dark blue haired girl, each with their arms wrapped protectively around one of the sand boy's arms. Though it was slightly awkward, all three managed to sleep and for the first time in his life, Sabaku no Gaara, has he would come to be called, got two consecutive nights of good sleep.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

That same day in Konohagakure, Sarutobi, the Sandaime Hokage, got an unexpected visit from a very busty blonde, concerning the possible whereabouts of a certain perverted, white haired author, who wrote the very series that Hatake Kakashi was so addicted to. It ended with the blonde leaving extremely annoyed that she'd have to travel all the way to the shores of the Land of Water to a port where the toad Sannin would be doing autograph signings for the next week for his newest book, Icha Icha (Insert desired word here). Let's just say that after the slug Sannin left, Sarutobi was lucky to still have a roof over his office.

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**A/N: Yes, yes I know this chapter was by no means as long as the last one which I apologize for, though I'm hoping you all did enjoy the few moments the chapter had. This is where the time skip occurs so next chapter will have Jiraiya, Tsunade and the whole group being reunited, along with another new face, though I ain't saying who. Please R&R as per usually and stay tuned for the next chapter which I hope to have out by Saturday morning. If there is no new chapter then, you, my readers and reviewers will be waiting two whole weeks for it while I enjoy a nice relaxing and well earned vacation from work. So pray to Kami that I get the thing done! Continue voting because I plan for chapter 9 or 10 to have that character(s) you guys wanna see live make her introduction. So see ya soon!**

**Translations:**

**Fūinjutsu: Biju no Sairensa – Sealing Technique: Silencer of the Tailed Beast(s)**


	9. Ch 8:Improvements and Convergence

**A/N: Alright this will be the last chapter posted for two whole weeks! Both polls will be closed come midnight on August 5****th**** so you've got two damn weeks to get those votes in. Now there's a small time skip between the last chapter and this one, so the group is going to be all together again with one more addition. Now for the current standings for the polls!**

**Haku's Gender-**

**Female: 9 (I think it's clear what you guys want)**

**Male: 4 (No comment)**

**Character Survivor-**

**Tayuya: 9(It's a tie again! Seems like people really want both to live)**

**Nii Yugito: 9(Read above)**

**Tsuchi Kin: 8(Damn this is close, let me know if you want 'em all to live.)**

**Character Ages:**

**Hinata-4; Gaara-5; Jiraiya-43**

**Ok let's get this eighth chapter rolling!(I own nothing!)**

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**Chapter 8: Improvements and Convergence**

Nearly three months have passed since Anko, Naruto, and Hinata arrived in Sunagakure and were joined by Gaara and his elder sister Temari. The snake mistress has put all four of the kids through a 'training from hell' like experience, which was only harsher due to the desert sands, though they didn't seem to affect the redheaded boy to any degree. The young Hyuuga girl's stutter, the sand boy's shyness, and the golden blonde boy's optimistic view of easy training exercises, have been almost literally beaten out of them. Anko had been forced to review the few jutsu that Naruto and Hinata knew because of Gaara's lack of knowledge of them. The Kage Bunshin no Jutsu, a technique that each of the kids present had seen at one point or another, was the first jutsu she taught the four which all of them mastered in two days. The teenage kunoichi also introduced a few other new techniques which none of the kids knew, the two most difficult being Katon: Hōsenka no Jutsu and Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu, which took all four of them two weeks to full master.

Due to the snake mistress's lack of finesse when it came to genjutsu, she solely focused on teaching the four runts, as she called them while they were training, taijutsu and ninjutsu. Anko gave each of them a set of weights for their wrists and ankles that could hold up to two hundred pounds. The purple haired teenager started the four kids off with five pounds per limb and increased the weight by five pounds every week. They were already up to seventy pounds a limb and during the few times when they were allowed to remove them, such as while eating at home, bathing, and sleeping so to avoid overbearing the beds, they felt as if they were almost as light as feathers. Since as the weight of their weights increased, the snake mistress taught them the technique for walking on water, or in this case, walking on sand. Anko also taught them all a meditating technique she had learned from Uchiha Itachi that was used for expanding their chakra capacities.

Thanks to Shukaku, who none of the group had thankfully heard from since his sealing, Gaara was able to teach his sister, friends, and teacher three Fuuton jutsu: Fuuton: Rekudan, Fuuton: Daitoppa, and Fuuton: Mugen Sajin Daitoppa, all of which Temari mastered in a week, while Naruto, Anko, and Hinata took three to get down. Though the kids were able to get the hang of these jutsu, they either didn't have a good enough affinity towards the necessary element, which Anko had no idea how to test for without leaves, or they simply couldn't put enough power behind them to make them effective. The only jutsu that all four of the kids managed to both master and put the needed power behind was the Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu.

Anko figured Gaara was able to perform these jutsu that Shukaku knew because even though the tanuki's mind and voice were cut off from the redhead, his powers most likely weren't; which easily explained the sand boy's Suna no Tate working automatically when all the kids were practicing taijutsu.

Out of all of them though, the snake mistress saw the greatest improvement in the young Hyuuga girl. Though clearly a genjutsu type and a person capable of learning healing techniques with ease, Hinata proved to be extremely skilled in taijutsu, though it did take some time for her to lose the Jyuuken stance and start developing one for herself.

The teenage kunoichi was quickly able to pick out what kind of shinobi Gaara, Naruto, and Temari were as well over the three months. The golden blonde boy was easily a taijutsu and ninjutsu type and Anko guessed due to Kyuubi's presence, what the fox-boy lacked in controlling the correct amount of chakra necessary for a jutsu, he made up for it in the sheer volume he could put into it. In the case of the Fuuton: Daitoppa, which Temari proved to be the best at with or without the use of her battle fan, Naruto could use it with more than twice the power but only about half as accurately as the sandy blonde girl.

The sand boy was a long range ninjutsu type who with the aid of his sand, which he began to slowly learn to control and even stared to keep a large amount stored in the shape of a gourd which he infused with his own chakra at Anko and Kyuubi's suggestion, could attack opponents with the use of less chakra. The sand gourd which was hollow but filled with more sand, easily added another fifty pounds to the weight the redhead was already lugging around on his limbs, proved to eventually make Gaara the fastest out of the four kids unless Naruto tapped into his tenant's chakra which though increased his capabilities dramatically, forced the boy to drop the near permanent henge he wore to hide his whisker marks and scars.

This led to Temari and her brother discovering the fox-boy's secret when the golden blonde had one of his training shirts shredded by the sand boy's sand during a sparring match. To say the least, there was much soothing from the two children of Suna for the blue eyed boy, and much explaining from both Kyuubi and their teenage sensei.

The wind mistress proved to have the greatest strength in tactics, but also was completely well-rounded in taijutsu, ninjutsu, and genjutsu, the most latter Anko figured because of her chakra control which was almost as good as Hinata's. The purple haired kunoichi could tell the sandy blonde's tactical skill because it reminded her very much of Itachi, who while his opponent was trying to think two steps ahead of him, the Uchiha prodigy was thinking ten steps ahead of his opponent. Anko was only able to tell Temari's chakra affinity while she was left clueless on the other three kids' because of the teal eyed girl's seemingly natural ability to use her fan.

These training sessions, which had given all four kids at least mid-Genin level strength and abilities, amazing mid to upper-Chuunin speed, and with the exception of Naruto, low-Chuunin level chakra reserves, had not gone unnoticed. About two weeks after they started, the Yondaime Kazekage, Gaara and Temari's father, began to send out Jounin to search for his 'missing' daughter and the Shukaku container. When he learned that travelers who had only recently arrived in the village were training both of them, he was intrigued that they were showing far more growth then they had under their normal tutelage. The leader of Suna decided to have them observed and that no interventions be made unless they attempted to leave the village, in which case, deadly force was to be taken against the teenage girl and that all four of the children be taken into custody.

Every day after they were first discovered, Anko was aware that she and the four runts were being watched and took note that there were always at least four Jounin watching them, but no more than six were ever present. The snake mistress took note that once it came time to leave the village, this could prove, for lack of a better word, troublesome, though she knew that together, the four kids could at least handle one or two Jounin especially if they took off their weights. With the added fact that one of the Sannin, Jiraiya, would be present at the time, overthrowing four to six Jounin couldn't be that bad, unless the Kazekage's personal guard was added to that. Anko knew though, that leaving the village would be far more eventful than it had been to enter.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Sarutobi has spent the past three months as every Kage does, seated at his desk behind a mountain of never ending paperwork. Mission requests, mission reports, fatalities among active ninja, applications for those soon to enroll in the ninja academy, you name it, the only Hokage to have taken office twice, had to sign and seal it. The only interesting event he had to comment was that in the beginning of February, the Sandaime Hokage received a scroll from Tsunade saying she finally managed to track down Jiraiya, after two months of searching. She came across the toad Sannin in a hot spring resort near the southern end of the coast in the Land of Water. She commented that by the time she was done beating, healing, re-beating, and re-healing the hermit, they would get back to Sunagakure to pick up Anko, Hinata, and Naruto by the first week of March ended. The slug mistress also briefly mentioned coming across a homeless boy with a very unique bloodline trait, but mentioned nothing more on the subject. The holder of the monkey summoning contract could only hope that in the end, whatever madness Anko and Tsunade had planned, it wouldn't harm Konoha.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

The discrete organization Akatsuki has also been busy the past three months, Sasori was successful in bringing Hoshigaki Kisame to the hideout to meet the leader, Pein, who was quick to convince the wielder of Samehada to join the organization. The auburn haired man was also quick in giving the puppet master another mission, this one, involved intercepting a squad of Konoha shinobi and give a member of the squad, one Uchiha Itachi, a scroll with details for what the organization could do for him once he was eleven.

To say the creator of human puppets was annoyed, would be an understatement, Sasori's anger was raging so intensely, one could swear if they were close enough, they smelled burning wood. As reluctant as he was, the murderer of the Sandaime Kazekage took the mission and completed it without a hitch, apart from almost getting caught in flurry of doujutsu originated genjutsu sent his way from the Uchiha prodigy who was quick to sport his complete three tomoe Sharingan in each eye. Never the less, Itachi agreed that he would look over the scroll give to him and come his eleventh birthday, he would attempt to seek out the organization.

Pein was quite pleased to hear this from Sasori, though he'd already been informed by Zetsu who was once again arguing with himself upon the puppet master's return to the base. He also found Kisame and Kakuzu arguing over the exact worth of money to a nukenin run mercenary organization. Most to his displeasure he found one of his newly completed puppets, a fourteen year old, male Chuunin from Kumogakure missing from his room. Let's just say what happened next would be the opposite if a scorpion encountered a highly venomous snake.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Anko and four very worn out kids were walking towards their apartment building, none of them really wanting to have to focus on building up chakra to Shunshin to the room after Anko made them fight her while under a genjutsu that made their weights seem three times as heavy. The goal was that each of them had to get two consecutive hits on her, but someone else who hadn't done so yet had to get their two hits in before two minutes passed. It ended up taking the team of Naruto, Gaara, Temari, and Hinata three hours to finally accomplish their task. The snake mistress had been kind enough to let them take their weights off for an hour while they ate lunch and then meditated.

As they neared the building, the five shinobi saw an elderly white haired man, in a traditional dark green yukata with a red vest over it and a large scroll strapped to his back; that and his matching dark green pants and the all wooden clogs, made him stand out as he rested against the wall of the building.

He looked up and when the group of five stopped in front of him, then saying, "You sure do take your sweet time training those kids, but I think we should continue the conversation inside so they can rest," as he looked at Gaara and Hinata who were both half passed out on a platform of sand which Temari had also placed her fan on. Said sandy blonde and Naruto, were in slightly better shape, though they were ankle deep in sand slowly sinking further.

Anko sweat dropped at the sight and said, "Yea, that sounds like a plan," then thinking to herself, _"I didn't make that last training exercise _that_ difficult, did I?"_

Ten minutes later after removing all the kids' weights, sealing said training gear in a scroll, and dragging the two blondes, the redhead, and the dark blue haired girl up to the apartment and placing each one on a sofa or reclining chair, the snake mistress and toad master sit at the table near the kitchen and discuss about what's happened over the past three months.

What surprises Jiraiya the most is that Gaara is the container of a Biju like Naruto and to learn that the Kyuubi within the fox-boy willingly sealed a fellow demon to protect a container that wasn't his own. The eventually went on to talk about how the four had grown in strength and what she observed, along with what they should learn to suit their abilities. They talked till well past ten, going over whom between the teenage kunoichi, the white haired Sannin, and the blonde slug mistress, would be best to train who.

Anko ended up asleep on the same sofa as Naruto, a blush on her cheeks from just a little too much sake, and Jiraiya was on the table, drooling with the sake bottle still clutched in his hand.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

It was around one in the afternoon when the group had everything they needed packed and were heading for the gate to leave the village. They weren't more than twenty meters from the gate when three Suna Jounin jumped in front of them and another three behind them. All of them wore the same armored uniforms and bandaged headgear along with masks to cover their faces, leaving only their eyes visible. The apparent leader, a man from the center of the trio standing between the group and the gate said, "By orders of the Yondaime Kazekage-" He was interrupted when Temari swung her fan at him like a mallet imbedding it slightly into the walkway.

"Anko-chan," the sandy blonde started, "Can we take the weights off and kick some ass?"

Her reply was a thumps up and Anko turning around and carrying out, "Sen'eijashu!" and launching three snakes, one at each of the Jounin that stood behind the group, who were all bit quickly in the neck. The three had frozen at the immediate sight of the snake leaving the snake mistress to wonder if they all shared a fear of snakes. She shrugged and turned looking back towards the other Jounin, seeing Naruto and Temari paired against one while Hinata and Gaara were up against another.

Jiraiya ran up quickly to the third Jounin who drew a kunai quickly and rushed towards the Sannin only to be sent flying back into a nearby wall after the toad master cried out, "Rasengan!"

Temari and Naruto had their enemy dancing around like crazy, they were surprised to see they were almost if not as fast as him. They kept on doing the same routine over and over, with the golden blonde going in for a punch or kick, while the sandy blonde would follow up with a hard swing from her fan. After about two minutes of this, the fox-boy caught the enemy Jounin with a leg sweep, barely knocking him over, which the wind mistress followed up with a heavy swing to the man's chest. Jounin or not, the blow from the steel fan right over his lungs would take even the most efficient shinobi.

Gaara and Hinata had a much easier time with their opponent; the lavender eyed girl simply ran in, and with only a high jump kick towards her opponent's head, which the Suna Jounin guarded against, the redhead sent a dresser sized fist of sand from right in front of the man and hit him dead on just after the young Hyuuga jumped out of the way.

When the four kids stepped in front of the snake mistress a moment later, they shouted only one word in unison, "Pathetic!"

Anko had to bite her lower lip hard to hold her laughter, then struggling, she replied, "You guys go that right; Kazekage-_sama_ must've thought we'd be some weak shit if he sent newbie Jounin after us."

That's when Jiraiya walked up and placing a hand on the teenager's left shoulder, "You got your fun, Anko, now let's get going; the sooner we're back in the land of Fire the less like Tsunade-hime will beat the crap out of me." All for kids starting laughing, at the white haired Sannin's comment, as they walked out of the gate and into the vast desert of the Land of Wind.

Even with their weights, the four kids were able to keep pace with the snake mistress and toad master who were going far from top speed through the sandy dunes. Yet, even at the pace they were going they would probably reach the border before sunset the next day. So for the next day and a half the group of Jiraiya, Anko, Naruto, Hinata, Gaara, and Temari, ran through the Land of Wind's scorching desert only stopping at night to rest and to eat when the growling from the golden blonde boy's stomach became loud enough to be heard a kilometer away.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Tsunade and Shizune sat on a log in the forest a few kilometers from the border between Fire and Wind. On the log across from them sat a boy with silver white hair that ended just below his long neck. He had dark jade eyes and a small oval shaped dot placed strategically above each of his silvery eyebrows. His outfit, an extremely pale purple obi held close by a brown rope and dark brown pants that was fairly baggy on his lanky frame, suited his pale, almost albino, skin. During her search for Jiraiya, the chronic gambler had come across this boy about two weeks before finally finding her perverted white haired teammate, who said his name was Kimimaro. She had found him just sitting in the back of an alley with a small frown on his face as he watched the many ants that were scurrying to and fro. Apart from revealing his name, Kimimaro hadn't said a single word since Tsunade found him, not including the small hello he said when he first met the toad master.

It'd been almost four days since that perverted oaf Jiraiya left to get Anko and the kids and if he wasn't back by sunrise tomorrow, the slug mistress was going to send him on another kilometer ride he'd never forget. The three sat there in silence, the medic nin apprentice falling asleep at some point with her head resting on the blonde gambler's left shoulder, as the sun slowly crept across the afternoon sky. Before any of them even realized it, the sun was setting on the unseen horizon in mixing hues of gold, yellow, red, and orange, making it seem like the landscape many kilometers away was ablaze in an enormous raging inferno.

As the last shades of sunlight faded, Tsunade heard a small crack from a twig behind her and quickly turned around causing Shizune to fall over and Kimimaro to wake up who had apparently fallen asleep. Out of the brush came the scampering of feet soon followed by Naruto and Hinata who both dove at the blonde Sannin. She opened her arms to catch them, but when they hit her, the slug mistress was bowled over and rolled back into the log where the silver haired boy sat.

Looking up while still slightly dazed at the fox-boy and Hyuuga girl before her, Tsunade only said, "What the hell just happened?"

Anko stepped out of the brush next with a cheshire cat grin plastered on her face while she said, "That would be two hundred eighty pounds of weights on each runt; seventy on each limb, though I think I can explain that later, since it seems each of our groups have some introductions to make." The snake mistress motioned for Temari and Gaara to step up which they did, looking straight at the bewildered slug mistress.

Gaara bowed very low, almost losing his balance because of his weights and gourd, and after regaining his balance, the sand boy said quickly, "I'm Gaara, the container of the Ichibi, Suna no Shukaku; I'm very honored to meet you Tsunade-sama."

The sandy blonde imitated the redhead's movements though she didn't lose her balance, so she also hurriedly said, "I'm his older sister Temari; I'm also honored to meet you, Tsunade-sama!"

Much to their surprise, Tsunade started laughing hysterically soon followed by Anko, Jiraiya and everyone else except for Kimimaro who only smirked lightly. Between laughs, the blonde gambler asked, "Which of them told you to do that, Anko-chan or the pervert?" pointing at each person as she said their name.

Eventually, once everyone settled down, Tsunade asked, "Gaara-kun, you said you're the container for Shukaku, correct?" She was answered with a swift nod. "I'm curious as to why you're not showing signs of insomnia," she wondered aloud.

There was a small poof as Naruto used the Kage Bunshin no Jutsu to make a miniature clone of Kyuubi, who, once the smoke around him cleared, said, **"That would be my doing, Tsunade. I sealed Shukaku's voice and disconnected his mind from Gaara's. The boy is still able to use the tanuki-teme's powers, but he will no longer suffer from insomnia. The seal will however, need to be replaced after ten years."**

"_**If you cloud seal my voice, why couldn't you seal my fucking ears you kitsune-teme!"**_ Shukaku roared inside his isolated mind.

It was hard to tell if the slug mistress was more shocked by the appearance of a miniature Kyuubi, or by the explanation the chibified creature just gave, either way her reply was, "I see…" the blonde Sannin then looked at Kimimaro and waved her hand for him to come over, which he did wordlessly. He stood there for a moment before saying in a very lonely and shy voice, "My name is Kimimaro, and it's a pleasure to meet all of you." With that the smallest smile crossed his face and the group began to chatting about everything that had happened over the period in which they had been separated. The adults, Kyuubi, and Anko talked amongst themselves about 'harsh' training methods, while the five kids walked over and sat on the few logs that had been placed around a brightly burning campfire and slowly, Naruto, Hinata, Temari, and Gaara got to know Kimimaro more and vice versa.

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**A/N: Alright people chapter 8 is in the books! Hope you liked the small fight and the entrance of Kimimaro. Those of you who HAVE NOT voted have two weeks to vote for the two polls so go and vote! So R&R people and I'll catch all your reviews when I get back, laters!**

**New Character Ages: Kimimaro-7**

**Translations:**

**Katon: Hōsenka no Jutsu – Fire Release: Phoenix Immortal Fire Technique**

**Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu – Fire Release: Grand Fireball Technique**

**Fuuton: Rekudan – Wind Release: Drilling Air Bullet**

**Fuuton: Daitoppa – Wind Release: Great Breakthrough**

**Fuuton: Mugen Sajin Daitoppa – Wind Release: Infinite Sand Cloud Great Breakthrough**

**Samehada – Shark Skin**

**Sen'eijashu – Hidden Shadow Snake Hand**

**Rasengan – Spiraling Sphere**


	10. Ch 9:Paths and Affinities

**A/N: Alright my loyal readers I'm back and the votes have been tallied. Not to my amazement at all, the outcome for Haku's Gender is female in a landslide of 21 votes to 7. I got eight requests in the end for all three girls, Tayuya, Nii Yugito, and Tsuchi Kin, to live so I added eight votes to each of the girl's tally. The final result is 20 votes for Tayuya, 20 votes for Nii Yugito, and 16 votes for Tsuchi Kin. So Tayuya and Yugito will both live and because I don't want to disappoint those of you who wanted all three to live and those who voted solely for Kin, I will try to get her to live as well. Also, it seems that I've forgotten to put up the ages for our beloved Akatsuki members.**

**Zetsu: (Your guess is as good as mine); Kisame: 21; Sasori: 25(Was mid 30's when he appeared in Part 2); Kakuzu: 90(He fought Shodai Hokage he's damn old); Orochimaru: 43, Itachi: 9(He's still not a member but hey); Pein: 20(He looks young ten years from this point so… yea); Unnamed member: (I'll get back to you guys on that)**

**Now that that mess is taken care of let's get a move on to chapter 9! (Must I say it?)**

**---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------**

**Chapter 9: Paths and Affinities**

It's mid-morning of the day following the reunion of our every growing group of unofficial nukenin. Gaara, Hinata, Kimimaro, Naruto, and Temari are sitting on two logs as Tsunade, who stands about a meter in front of them prepares to explains what they'll be focusing on for training.

"After talking with Anko last night about the training you've all gone through over the past few months, I decided to drop the weights you have on your arms but leave the ones you have on your legs, though I think we'll increase the weight more slowly then what Anko was," the slug Sannin explained slightly turning her head to look at said snake mistress who stood behind her along with Jiraiya and a human sized bunshin of Kyuubi. Turning her attention back to the five kids in front of her, the busty blonde continued, "Also, it seems that apart from Temari, none of you know what your chakra affinities are." Tsunade then pulled five leaves out from behind her back and stated, "I want each of you to balance one of these leaves on your dominate index fingers and focus some chakra into the leaf."

"Hold up Tsunade," the white haired Sannin interrupted, walking over to his longtime teammate. "Before we start training the gakis, I have something that I need to give to Naruto."

"You were told _not_ to give that to him until Sarutobi-sensei agreed he was ready!" the gambling addict snapped harshly yet quietly enough so no one else, apart from Kyuubi do to his acute hearing, heard.

"Well, Sarutobi-sensei isn't here and Kami knows when we'll be seeing him again," Jiraiya shot back, quickly ending the argument.

"Oi!" the golden blonde fox-boy shouted, "What are you whispering about, you said you had something you wanted to give to me, right Jiraiya-sama?"

The perverted novelist quickly looked at the blue eyed youth before reaching into his vest and pulling out a scroll. He lightly tossed it into to air towards Naruto saying, "Catch," which the Kyuubi container did. The golden blonde immediately noticed the seal on the slightly worn and stained scroll in his hands and before he could even ask, the toad master answered his unspoken question, "Just wipe some of your blood across the seal and it'll release, after all, it contains your father's last words to you."

This made everyone except for Tsunade, Jiraiya, and Kimimaro freeze; the most latter not knowing that Naruto's father had been the same person who sealed Kyuubi inside of him. Naruto could only stare at the scroll, as his breathing became heavy and deep. Shaking furiously, he bit his thumb and wiped the bleeding digit across the seal, quickly undoing it with a small hiss as the seal burned away.

The son of the Yondaime Hokage then slowly opened the scroll and read what it contained, _"Dear Naruto, I don't know how old you are or what your life has been like up to this point, but the fact that your reading this letter means that Sarutobi or Jiraiya has deemed you fit to read it and that you know that I sealed the Kyuubi no Kitsune inside of you. I don't know what kind of life you've had up to this point but I can only say I hope the villagers heeded my request for you to be treated as the savior of the village. Unfortunately, if I know the attitude of the villagers as well I as I think I do, then you've probably had it rough for a very long time now. You should know that my wife, your mother, who only Sarutobi, Ero-sensei, and Tsunade, knew of died giving birth to you. After you were born she told me to live happily with you, but the Kyuubi's attack seems to have dashed those plans to nothing. I think you have the right to know though, that the method of sealing the Kyuubi inside of you wasn't an original idea. The Yondaime Raikage, Nii Yukoto, a good friend of mine from during the war with Iwa, passed the information onto me some time ago and told me her daughter Yugito is the container for the Nibi no Nekomata. She's ten years older than you are and hopefully, if you ever happen to visit Kumogakure you could give Yukoto my regards. I'm afraid I'm out of time Naruto, from here in the Hokage tower; I can see the destruction that the Kyuubi is creating. One last thing though, if you ever so much as look at one page from ero-sensei's novels I'll find some way of making you regret it. Just never forget Naruto, I love you; your father, Kazama Arashi, the Yondaime Hokage. P.S. Sealed in this scroll is the scroll for my Hiraishin no Jutsu which you should master before your twenty if you're really my son." _

Thanks to Kyuubi, who read the words of the letter to Naruto from inside his mind, the fox-boy managed to comprehend the entire scroll and was very intrigued by the knowledge of another Biju contained along with the scroll for what was the Yondaime's greatest technique. The golden blonde then read the entire leader aloud to those present, who when he finished, were all gathered around him in a large group hug except for Kyuubi, who was only a normal bunshin and couldn't participate, and Jiraiya who was rather annoyed at his former student for calling him Ero-sensei and demeaning his masterpiece novels.

After about thirty minutes of comforting, crying, hugs, and explanations to Kimimaro about who Kazama Arashi was, Tsunade said, "Well thanks to the information in Naruto's scroll, it would be best to say that traveling to Kumo is what many of you are already planning," eyeing everyone but her apprentice, the toad master, and silver haired boy, only to receive a barrage of strong nods. Then, the gambling blonde continued, "It would probably be easiest to travel through the several lands north of the Land of Fire, since their checkpoints will be easier to pass through then the one between the Lands of Fire and Lightning. But we aren't going to rush there, since there's still your training to consider."

The master medic then walked up to each of the kids and handed each of them a leaf. "Now hopefully you five remember what I said before Naruto read the scroll from his father," Tsunade snapped lightly. They all nodded and quickly did as they had been told earlier, balancing the leaves on their index fingers and focusing chakra into the plant fragment.

The outcomes were much as Tsunade had expected after hearing Anko's observations of the kids from the three months of training they had endured. Gaara's leaf split in half cleanly, then as the two halves fell, the quickly turned to dust, indicating the sand boy as having both an affinity for wind and earth. Hinata's leaf only became soaked with water and due to the added weight, fell off the dark blue haired girl's finger. Kimimaro surprised even Tsunade as first his leaf crumpled then burned to ash not a moment later. The slug mistress also was surprised when the golden blonde boy's leaf burned after splitting in half. The blonde Sannin quickly concluded that the added fire affinity was due in part to Kyuubi's chakra that was constantly mixing with Naruto's chakra. Finally, Temari's leaf did nothing but uneventfully split in half, though one could've guessed her chakra affinity just by watching her fight with her fan.

"Three wind, two fire, a lightning, an earth, and a water," Anko summarized, intrigued that the group of five in front of her had all the elements covered along with enough members to cover taijutsu, ninjutsu, genjutsu, and medic. The snake mistress figured that if the five of them trained right, along with this Nii Yugito kid who seemed more then likely to end up joining them, without even adding herself, Tsunade, and Jiraiya into the equation, this group of rejects, outcasts, and runaways, would at some point be a force to be reckoned with in the shinobi world.

The slug mistress then said demandingly, "Now that we know your affinities, starting tomorrow you all will be told how you'll be training for at least next few years. You kids can have some fun doing whatever you please for the rest of the day, while Jiraiya, Anko-chan, Kyuubi, and I plan things out for you."

Unfortunately for the blonde fox-boy, hearing Kyuubi's name in that last sentence meant he would have to keep a bunshin up constantly for most of the remainder of the day and that he couldn't go more than a few hundred meters away from cap without the bunshin dissolving. Nonetheless, for the rest of the day the five kids enjoyed themselves since it would be a good long while before they would be able to do so again, and throughout the day, the five along with the other members of the group, were observed carefully and strategically, by a pair of yellow eyes that disappeared and reappeared among the many surrounding trees.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Pein and a blue haired woman were standing on a balcony at their base in the Land of the Waterfalls, somewhere to the southeast of Kakuzu's home village of Takigakure. The other members bar Orochimaru and Zetsu were in their rooms attending to their own devices, while the snake Sannin slithered his way through the cold twisting halls of the lair in hopes of finding one of the organization's poison expert's younger appearing puppets, carelessly tossed aside or forgotten. The nukenin from Kusa was only now just returning to the hideout, as he emerged from the floor behind Pein and his female counterpart.

"Leader-sama," the two colored, two minded man began, "We now know **the whereabouts of the Nibi; it to **is contained in a Jinchuuriki,** the Kumo Genin, Nii Yugito."**

"Thank you for the information, Zetsu, for now though, we must wait at least until Uchiha Itachi joins us before we begin moving," the heavily pierced young man stated, "By then, we will have three Jinchuuriki together, and will have the chance to obtain them and remove a possible annoyance at the same time."

"Planning to kill many birds with one stone, Pein?" The blue haired woman asked the auburn haired man with little formality.

"If it's possible then yes," Pein answered. Then turning to Zetsu he ordered, "Zetsu inform Sasori and Orochimaru that they are to go to the Lands of Earth, Grass, Rice, and Rain to collect the sums from our associates and that you and Kisame are to collect to sums in the Lands of Water, Wind, and Lightning. Make sure that our newest member keeps a low profile while in his home land."

He was replied with the faintest of bows and a, "H**a**i, **L**e**a**d**e**r-**s**a**m**a!" before he dissolved into the floor and went about carrying out his orders.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

In Konoha, the nine year old Genin and prodigy of the Uchiha clan, Uchiha Itachi, was in a forest alone training, his Sharingan in full flare. It was the same target practice he had been doing for a year now, hitting eight targets simultaneously, six in plain sight and two hidden behind trees. All the young Uchiha had on his mind was the invitation he had received from the hunched man, Sasori, to join the organization Akatsuki in a year and four months.

The raven haired boy was skeptical at least, but considering how this man managed to avoid his barrage of genjutsu, members of this organization must be exceptionally strong, and he had been invited to join them. He knew of the secret of the Uchiha, the Mangekyo Sharingan, having first appeared in Uchiha Madara close to a hundred years ago and in only a few others since then, he knew that to achieve it, his closest friend Shisui must die, though he had no such thoughts yet of killing his best friend for power. That however, would eventually change in the coming months.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

It was just after sunrise and the five kids had been woken up before the sun even appeared for breakfast. "Alright gakis, today we start training, but first Tsunade will tell what exactly each of you will be training as," the white haired Sannin said, finishing with a heavy yawn, still not completely awake himself. _"Why the hell did Tsunade want to get them up this earlier, they may be kids but there's no way that they're going to have the energy to get through the whole day? Well except for maybe Naruto and Gaara, but they have demonic chakra backing them up," _the toad master thought to himself.

"You're first Naruto!" the busty blonde shouted in order to make sure the golden blonde boy heard her. "You'll spend mornings training with Anko in taijutsu and learning katon ninjutsu; in the afternoon you'll either be training with me to get a better grip on chakra control or with Kyuubi on controlling his chakra. In the evenings, Jiraiya will help you with both Katon and Fuuton ninjutsu," Tsunade dictated, which Naruto only nodded repeatedly as she spoke.

"Next, Hinata," her voice was much softer now and the slug mistress was talking at a normal volume seeing that Hinata was the only one of the five kids who appeared to be fully awake. "You're mornings and evenings will be spent focusing on chakra control, medical ninjutsu and learning genjutsu. In the afternoons though, you'll train with Kyuubi who will be teaching how to dispel Jounin level and higher genjutsu," The lavender eyed girl shook a little when she heard that she'd be dispelling such high level techniques when she only knew a single genjutsu herself.

"Temari," the sandy blonde who had been struggling to keep her eyes open snapped to attention. "You actually have options since your well rounded in taijutsu, ninjutsu, and genjutsu-"

"Long range ninjutsu and genjutsu," the teal eyed girl said sleepily leaning on her fan.

Tsunade sighed and took a small pebble out of her pocket and flicked it _lightly_ at the ex-Suna resident, hitting her square in the forehead and knocking her back a couple of meters. "Learn not to fall asleep when you're receiving assignments!" the gambling addicted blonde snapped. "Now you'll be spending mornings with me and Hinata learning chakra control and genjutsu. In the afternoons you'll also be with Hinata training with Kyuubi to learn to dispel upper level genjutsu. In the evening you'll be with Naruto training with Jiraiya but you'll only be learning Fuuton ninjutsu," the slug Sannin finished pulling another pebble out just in case she had to wake up Gaara, who, when she turned to him was fully awake after what had happened to his sister.

"Gaara, most of your training will be with Jiraiya learning Fuuton and Doton ninjutsu, though you will be training with Kyuubi in the afternoons to learn to better control Shukaku's demonic chakra. You also have the choice of training with Anko from time to time to learn Doton ninjutsu," Tsunade finished, finally letting out a yawn that she to, like everyone else, was tired, though she was more awake than anybody else in the group.

"Your last Kimimaro and you'll be spending mornings with Anko learning Katon ninjutsu and practicing taijutsu," another heavy yawn escaped the blonde Sannin's lips as she continued, "Afternoons and evenings you'll be with Jiraiya also training in taijutsu and Katon ninjutsu. Unfortunately for you and Hinata, none of us know Suiton or Raiton techniques, though I'm sure we'll pick some up while traveling to the Land of Lightning." The gambling addict then reached into her pocket again and pulled out a syringe that was filled with a clear liquid. She quickly uncapped it and injected the fluid into her right arm, surprising the few who were paying attention.

"Oi, Tsunade-hime, what did you just inject yourself with?" Jiraiya asked his fellow Sannin curiously.

As she stretched and loudly cracked the joints in her shoulders and elbows the slug mistress replied, "Pure adrenaline; if it wasn't for that I'd still be asleep like Shizune," pointing at her black haired apprentice as she finished.

"_That is _so_ not fair,"_ all five of the kids thought lazily after hearing that Tsunade was really worse off than them and only awake because she had been using a stimulant.

The busty gambler turned to the five kids again and said, "After lunch we'll all meditate for one hour before continuing training and we won't train on Sunday so all of us will be able to enjoy ourselves a little." This quickly replaced the frowns that had appeared on the five trainees' faces as the slug Sannin gave out orders. The blonde medic then clapped her hands and said, "Now I'll let you kids sleep for another hour or so before we start training, this way we don't have anyone collapsing before we're even half way done. The five kids then cheered and ran to where the five of them had slept previously; against two trees that had grow into each other. Gaara slept with Hinata leaning on his left shoulder against the left tree, while Temari was against the right tree with Naruto leaning on her right shoulder. Kimimaro slept where the two trees joined, and smiled as he fell asleep surrounded by his new friends.

The bunshin of Kyuubi that had been listening to the orders Tsunade had handed out trotted up to the medic Sannin inquiring, "They have absolute no clue how tough this will be for them do they?"

"If they knew I'm sure all of them but Naruto and Temari would be running and hiding, they're a little headstrong so it would take more than threats to get them to back down, even if they're only four and seven," the blonde gambler replied. Kyuubi snorted lightly and attempted to hold in his laughter as Tsunade raised an eyebrow at him.

"Headstrong isn't a strong enough word," the demon fox started, "They're more like suicidally obsessed with not giving up. Anko had those two spar only once because even after the two were spent for chakra, they were still on their feet, Temari trying to hit Naruto with her fan and Naruto trying to punch Temari in the gut to knock her out."

"So, who won?" the slug mistress asked slightly intrigued by the chibi-kitsune's story.

"It was a draw; Naruto got her in the stomach right when she hit him on the top of the head with the broad side of that fan. They both slept like rocks for two days," Kyuubi finished still trying to contain his laughter.

"Let's just see how this first day goes, because if they take forever to learn what we got to teach I'm not teaching," Anko said dragging her feet as she walked up to the fox and medic. "But I doubt there'll be problems, they picked stuff up when we were in Suna, so they'll probably learn things even more quickly now that they have more than one sensei."

"We'll see," Kyuubi said coolly as the bunshin dissolved and he retreated back into Naruto's mind to catch some sleep himself before he had to get ready to help the gakis, as Jiraiya called them, master their control over chakra.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

It was almost ten in the morning and the kids had been training for almost two hours now. They had been split up into their small groups and gone to different clearings in the area surrounding where they had camp set, even though that camp was only a small fire which Shizune had lazily dismantled when she woke to find that her and Tonton had been left behind, not having any teaching assignments.

-With Anko, Naruto, and Kimimaro-

"What the hell was that?!" the snake mistress bellowed as Naruto had failed for the third time in a row at producing a successful Gōkakyū no Jutsu. Then out of the blue she said, "Let's focus on taijutsu now! Sen'eijashu!" launching a snake at Naruto and Kimimaro each, the former running for his life as usual, while the latter instinctively made a blade of appear out of his hand, created from one of the bones in his forearm. The pale skinned boy didn't even realize what had happened until he saw the snake sliced cleanly in half on the ground behind him.

The purple haired teenager let out a low whistle and said, "That's one hell of a bloodline limit you have there runt; what did you say it was called again?" then finished as she watched the bone retreat back into the silver haired boy's arm.

As the skin and muscle reconnected in his hand with some small amount of pain, Kimimaro replied, "I only remember hearing it called, Shikotsumyaku."

-With Jiraiya and Gaara-

Gaara had just attempted to use the Doton: Yomi Numa at Jiraiya's request, though he did manage to pull it off he was only able to make a small pool that was only about two meters and diameter and no even deep enough to swallow his gourd. Jiraiya looked at the container of Shukaku and said, "We have a _long_ way to go gaki," scratching the back of his head.

-With Tsunade, Temari, and Hinata-

"Um, Tsunade-sama, you said you'd be teaching us chakra control right?" Temari said as she and Hinata ran from the blonde Sannin.

"That's correct Temari-chan," the gambling addicted woman answered.

"Then why the hell are you trying to smash me and Hinata-chan to paste with your superhuman strength?!" the sandy blonde shouted as she ducked out of the way just in time to avoid one of her sensei's punches, which connected with a tree and splintered it completely.

"That's easy, Temari-chan, you and Hinata-chan, without even realizing have been using chakra to increase your speed to get away from me. Both of you are subconsciously learning this whole time when you need either a small amount of chakra or a large amount. When it comes to genjutsu you need the precise amount of chakra otherwise it just won't work. When I think you're ready, and then we'll start learning genjutsu," the legendary medic finished with a small smile as she nearly flattened Hinata into the ground but missed and made a rather large crater in the ground.

"_And here I was thinking Anko-chan was insane!"_ Temari screamed inside her head as she and her lavender eyed companion continued to run for their, still very young, lives.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

When the group returned to camp at noon, not one of the kids was in any mood to do anything other than eat and start to fear just what in the name of Kami their sensei were preparing for them next. Once the kids had their fish, which Shizune had caught and roasted while everyone else was gone, they sat near their conjoined trees and talked about what they had experienced in the past four hours.

"Anko-nee-chan had her snake eat me and Kimimaro! It ate us in one damn bite!" the fox-boy shouted remembering how if it hadn't been for the bone user's bloodline limit, both of them would still be inside that huge snake that belonged to the woman he called nee-chan.

Hinata then said, "Tsunade-sama tried to squish me and Temari-chan with that super strength of hers."

The sandy blonde nodded and continued where the young Hyuuga left off, "She broke about twenty trees and completely ruined that clearing we were using. If she had hit one of us we wouldn't be training for Kami knows how long."

Gaara just sat there in a slightly dazed state as he held his teddy bear tightly and rocked back and forth.

"Oi, Gaara, are you ok?" the golden blonde boy asked his fellow Jinchuuriki.Then, the sand boy started repeatedly saying,

"I don't like toads; I don't like toads; I don't like toads," for about five more minutes, setting a complete fear for whatever the toad master had put Gaara through during his training. Despite the experiences they had just endured and barely survived, Temari and Hinata feared training with Kyuubi more than anything, especially since he would be placing them under genjutsu.

They were all glad for one thing though: that tomorrow was Sunday.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Following lunch, the entire group, including Shizune, meditated for an hour until the group once again separated and went to different clearings.

-With Kyuubi, Temari, and Hinata-

**"I'm sure Tsunade explained to both of you that in order to dispel genjutsu placed upon you without the aid from some outside of it, you must expel your opponent's chakra from your system,"** Kyuubi explained receiving cautious nods from the two girls in front of him. **"Good, now be ready for when the genjutsu is cast, otherwise you won't know you're in one until you're in too deep to easily expel my chakra."**

Then Kyuubi just sat there staring the two girls dead in the eyes. When each one turned to look at the other, they realized that their companion was gone and they were alone. Temari quickly moved her hands to release the genjutsu, but tree vines shot out from nowhere and two wrapped around each of the sandy blonde's wrists, restraining her arms. That's when the teal eyed girl looked at the ground and saw a swarm of cockroaches surrounding her and begging to scurry up her legs. She then did what any other seven year old her age would do, scream like there was no tomorrow.

Hinata on the other hand, panicked from the moment her partner disappeared and even more so when she saw the wind mistress knocked out next to her. The lavender eyed girl was about to faint when she heard a loud, ear piercing scream.

The sandy blonde looked around her and noticed the bugs were gone, her arms were free and that Hinata was standing next to her again. All she could think of saying was, "How the hell did the genjutsu come undone?"

**"You almost blew out my eardrums, that's how,"** Kyuubi replied holding his ears against his head with his forepaws. **"You have one really huge set of lungs, you know Temari?"** Kyuubi asked rhetorically and received a slow nod as a response. The Hyuuga beside the teal eyed girl started to giggle a little before soon her and Temari broke out in full laughter, causing Kyuubi to sweat drop nervously, wondering how long the sanity of these kids was going to last under this training.

-With Tsunade, Gaara, and Naruto-

"You know we're not getting a whole lot of training done like this, right Gaara?" the golden blonde said to his companion as they sat back to back inside Gaara's very protective sphere of sand.

"I'll take my chances in here rather than out there where I could lose a limb," the sand boy replied as there was another loud bang on the wall of the sphere. Gaara made a small peep hole and looked outside and almost passed out at what he saw.

"What's wrong Gaara?" the fox-boy asked nervously.

"Sensei has a tree, a very, very big tree," was all the tanuki container said.

Naruto immediately started digging into the ground like a dog almost as if he planned to tunnel his way out of the situation. Then without warning the top portion of the dome was knocked away and Tsunade looked in at two very frightened Jinchuuriki. She smiled a small evil smile and said, "Enough cowering like babies, you've wasted half an hour so you'll be making up for it with a little extra danger." The two boys did waste a moment and jumped out of the collapsing dome and ran from their sensei as fast as possible. Still smiling, the blonde medic cooed, "This should be fun," as she took a few practice swings with a five meter long tree that was freshly ripped from the ground.

-With Jiraiya and Kimimaro-

"Oi, gaki, watch where you swing those things!" the toad Sannin shouted as he continued to dodge the bone user's bone swords.

"I won't give you a chance to try anything fun like you did with Gaara-san," was all the silver haired boy said as he continued to swing the very sharp and pointy bones at his lecherous sensei.

"_I didn't do anything funny! The worst I did was when I had some of the toads dog pile the kid,"_ the perverted novelist thought to himself as he dodged another swinging bone. _"What the hell did I do to deserve to be treated this way from a gaki like him?"_

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

By the time the first day of training was over, all five of the trainees were exhausted. As they sat and leaned against their conjoined trees, they talked about what had happened since lunch.

"I think me and Gaara now know just how short our lives have been," Naruto said to his tired companions.

"Why's that?" the sandy blonde inquired.

"We saw them flash by in less than half a second," the sand boy answered.

"We told you Tsunade-sama was scary," the lavender eyed girl added in.

"How long will we be training like this again?" Kimimaro asked feeling sleep starting to take him over.

**"A few years at least,"** came the voice of Kyuubi who appeared next to the group unexpectedly. The chibi-kitsune smiled and said in his own dark and cheerful voice, **"All of you have genjutsu and chakra control with me Monday afternoon and evening, Tsunade's orders."** With that, the demon fox walked back over and started talking with Anko.

"_Kami help us,"_ was the thought that passed through the five kids minds simultaneously. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

**A/N: There you have it, chapter 9 is done and over with, hope you enjoyed some of the humor in it along with the letter from Yondaime to Naruto. I may add a poll next chapter for who Naruto should end up with and it won't be Yugito or Hinata, Yugito's to old and Hinata has Gaara. So stay tuned for the next chapter later this week. **

**New Character's ages- **

**Nii Yugito: 14 **

**Translations- **

**Hiraishin no Jutsu: Flying Thunder God Technique **

**Shikotsumyaku: Dead Bone Pulse **

**Doton: Yomi Numa: Earth Release: Swamp of the Underworld**


	11. Ch 10:In Sync

**A/N: Alright people I'm holding off on the poll FOR NOW, until I either deem it nearly impossible for me to pair Naruto with Anko eventually, or you all flood me with reviews for who you want Naruto paired with, which I will not be excepting requests for Hinata or Haku, they already have their places set in my head. Now I must also say that I apologize to those of you who found the last few paragraphs of chapter nine crammed together in that abomination of bold and non-bold print. It would seem that FF didn't like me using those dash marks when I separated the training scenes, but that's all fixed up now so if you didn't read the end of the last chapter go do it now before reading on. So now let's get going with the tenth chapter! Also it will be the next chapter or the one following that when Tayuya is introduced, unless I go out of my mind and write a ten thousand word+ chapter. (I only own what is non-canon and the computer on which I right this!)**

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**Chapter 10: In Sync**

It's slightly past noon on Monday and we find our five shinobi in training sitting on a few fallen logs that they've moved into an awkward circle, outside a dango shop. The previous day, the group began to move north towards the Land of Grass, which was the closest country the group had access to, bar the Land of Wind since Gaara and Temari were now officially defected from Sunagakure by order of their father, the Yondaime Kazekage. He currently had all shinobi along the borders to kill the sandy on sight and bring Gaara back through the border before killing him, in order to ensure the survival and retrieval of the Ichibi no Shukaku.

The group had managed to come across a small village some twenty kilometers north of where they had been the previous day, but they were still roughly seventy or so kilometers from the northern border. They were able to get some supplies including all the necessary food stuffs they would be needing, since they couldn't go on living off of fish and berries the entire way to Kumo. Kimimaro also had Tsunade purchase around forty boxes of pocky, which the slug mistress noticed the pale jade eyed boy had taken a strong, almost obsessive liking to. This only reminded Anko of Uchiha Itachi who had been addicted to the chocolate covered snack since she first met the boy when he was five. Though she noticed him often eating the vanilla flavored sticks as opposed to the original chocolate flavored ones whenever she saw him.

As they now sat in the forest only five kilometers away from where they had spent the previous night, the five trainees ate their lunch of grilled rabbit and some fruit on the side; apples for Kimimaro and Temari, a banana for Hinata and oranges for Gaara and Naruto. The lanky, pale skinned boy had also managed to sneak a box of pocky from the cooled pack that Anko had them locked and sealed in. The snake mistress knew just by observing how the bone user slowly ate each stick in order to savor the flavor as long as possible, he would end up going through between three and five boxes of the uniquely tasting stuff a day. She secretly cursed whatever Kami made the snack so addicting and Kimimaro and the young Sharingan master for unknowingly worshiping it.

They were completely silent apart from a small crunch from one of them eating a sticky of pocky, or struggling to tear the grilled meat when they bit into it. Before they even knew it, it was time for the hour of meditation which would closely be followed by the all purpose training session with Kyuubi, who decided to let the kits and kittens, as he called the trainees now, have a chase to show what they knew to him just so he could evaluate their progress.

As the group followed the kage bunshin of the demon fox to the clearing where they would be spending the next six hours, the five kids talked amongst themselves in hopes of trying to form some desperate strategy that would help them live long enough to see the end of the training session.

"Ok," Temari began, "We know Kyuubi-san has an affinity for katon jutsu, so we would be best of avoiding those and focusing-"

"On suiton jutsu, which we have none of," Kimimaro interrupted in a monotone voice, barely masking that he was almost as nervous as Hinata about this since he was the only one to not have trained with Kyuubi.

"Fuuton is out of the question to," the golden blonde boy added as they grew closer to the place that spelled disaster for the five of them. "That is unless you want to deal with oversized fire attacks that could burn us and the forest to the ground."

"So my sand and pathetic Yomi Numa are the only jutsu we have against Kyuubi-san?!" Gaara snapped questioningly, and quickly receiving small nods from his companions. The pale green eyed boy quickly had the sand in his gourd release his teddy bear which he began squeezing with enough force to make some of the stuffing come out.

"We could try using the super strength Tsunade-sama uses," the dark blue haired girl quietly suggested. The idea seemed possible to all of them, apart from the fact that Naruto and Gaara didn't have the chakra control necessary for it; Kimimaro knowing he while his chakra control was good, he could achieve the same devastating results, though on a smaller scale, by hardening the bones in his arms and hands. This however, took an immense toll on his chakra reserves and that after fifteen minutes or so he'd be spent and even between all the soldier pills between them, there weren't enough to keep the silver haired boy going for six hours; maybe two or three but definitely not six. Temari and Hinata in contrast had the chakra control needed and decent chakra reserves, but one more problem remained, Kyuubi himself

It was clear from the other day that Kyuubi was highly skilled at genjutsu and no doubt ninjutsu as well, but the fox's skills with taijutsu were an enigma, since he was a fox and not a human. Eventually, the group decided on having Gaara and Kimimaro work together to test the millenniums old demon's taijutsu skills by having them protected by the Tate no Suna while Kimimaro used his bone swords to attack Kyuubi. If they could discover any weakness at all, they'd at least have the slimmest of chances of winning with the five of them working together.

It was then that just as the clearing came into view that Kyuubi stopped and turned towards the five trainees and said, **"I honestly hate seeing valuable time wasted through over training you kits, so I'm going to do you five a favor and boost your abilities a notch, and none of you better tell Tsunade or Anko about this; I enjoy what little time I get to see the sun, far too much for one of them to have Jiraiya seal me as Shukaku is."**

"You know Kyuubi," came a slightly seductive voice as with a poof of smoke, Anko appeared behind said demon continuing, "If you want this little secret kept one, you better give me a little boost to, unless you want what you fear to come true."

"**You can be a very manipulative woman, Anko-chan,"** Kyuubi said, annoyance heavy in his voice, **"Yet you remind me oh, so much of myself; too bad you weren't born a demon fox,"** the demon finished as he began to muse to himself. At the same time, he raised six of his tails and pressed the tip of one to one of the present humans' forehands. Immediately, a surge of chakra streamed from the area they were at, as the kids and Anko's chakra reserves grew larger, but only enough so not to put terminal stress on their bodies.

"**Anko, you should now be at least with the range of strength of an experienced ANBU member,"** Kyuubi began explaining, **"My and Shukaku's container should be towards that of veteran Chuunin in strength, and on the border for what a Jounin may have as far as chakra reserves go. The other kit and the two kittens should have both the strength and chakra of an experienced Chuunin. I ask you three and Anko to keep an eye open for any side effects of this, mostly change in hair or eye color."** With that, the fox walked into the clearing and calmly sat in the center before bellowing, **"Shall we be training or not?!"** at the five children, who ran or in Temari's case jumped and lightly floated down into the clearing to join their sensei.

From where they were watching on the other side of the clearing, Jiraiya, Tsunade, and Shizune were all speechless when they saw the teal eyed girl practically fly from where she'd been standing to the center of the clearing which was a good thirty meters in distance. That's when they heard the sandy blonde shout, "And I thought I could only do that when riding on my fan; having an affinity for wind kicks ass!"

Tsunade quickly made a mental note of this to make sure that she questioned Kyuubi on Temari's newfound ability along with any others that she found suspicious that the other kids happened to produce during this little training regimen. Thant's when Anko landed on the branch next to her and said, "I have a good feeling that the runts are gonna surprise us; maybe they'll even give Kyuubi a run for his money."

The slug Sannin eyed the snake mistress with a curious glint in her eyes, questioning, "You know something don't you, Anko-_chan_," the 'chan' suffix being clearly stressed.

The teenage kunoichi only cocked an eyebrow and shot back as politely as possible, "I only know what I know and whatever your pretty little head can imagine, Tsunade-_sama_," raising the already high tension between the two females, causing Jiraiya to dash to a tree several meters away for safety.

That's when a shout came from the golden blonde boy, who had walked closer to the trees where those not participating in this _little_ training session were observing, "Oi, Tsunade-sama, can I make a bet with you?!"

The female Sannin momentarily forgot her anger towards Anko, who was still seething and putting of a fair amount of killing intent, and looked down at the fox-boy and replied, "That depends what you want to bet on, Naruto-kun."

"If we can beat Kyuubi, then can we train for only three days a week instead of six?" the ocean blue eyed kid questioned, much hope in his eyes, though more seemed apparent in all the other kids' eyes bar Temari, who like Naruto, thoroughly enjoyed training, though not enough to train for six out of seven days of the week.

The slug mistress contemplated on this for a moment before retorting, "Alright, but if you five should lose, then you five will train for seven days a week, three of those being solely with Kyuubi-san, who can use any form of training he wants on you." Tsunade, though she honestly meant what she said, was merely using it as a ruse to get the young shinobi to back down from his bet and just get on with training with the fire red fox that sat patiently in the center of the clearing, simply listening to the conversation.

This had lumps forming in all of the kids throats as their imaginations ran wild picturing just what Kyuubi would be able to do with no restrictions on training methods. It was Kimimaro who then blurted out, "Forget it, Naruto-kun; I'd rather be training six days a week, then have to train everyday and spend three of those days with Kyuubi-san!"

"He's right Naruto-kun," the lavender eyed girl said sheepishly, completely agreeing with her older companion. "Kyuubi-san already is really harsh with what training he's done with us; I don't want him to almost k-kill us," she finished with a nervous stutter, mostly due to the fact that she hated using the word and not so much that she was scared enough to wet herself if they went along with the bet.

"I say we do it," Naruto's fellow blonde input, "Training's fun and all, but six days a week is insane." She then looked up towards Tsunade and asked, "Can I add one more thing to the bet Tsunade-sama?"

The busty gambling addict looked at the pigtailed sandy blonde curiously and replied, "Sure Temari-chan, what is it?"

She then pointed her right index finger at the older blonde's chest, "The one of us who gets the last blow on Kyuubi-sama, can they get that necklace you're wearing?"

This request made Jiraiya, Shizune, and Tsunade freeze as the slug mistress's eyes grew wide and she started to shake and sweat. Then quickly, her eyes became cold, hard, and distant and she snapped, "Absolutely not!"

The wind mistress flinched at the female Sannin's quick and very harsh answer. Naruto was quick to snap back at her, "You don't have to be so harsh, Tsunade-sama; Temari-chan only asked a question. You could've-"

"Drop it, Naruto," Jiraiya interrupted coolly, "That necklace, is something that none of you kids want, unless you want to end up dead."

All five of them physically flinched at the white haired Sannin's words, while Kyuubi curiously cocked an eyebrow hidden among all his fur. "D-dead?" Gaara asked curiously.

"It's another story for another time, gaki; you all have some training to do anyway so get to it," Jiraiya said, trying to get the five kids' minds back to training and off of the mystery behind Tsunade's necklace. Then as the five trainees began to turn around and get ready to fight Kyuubi, a sharp cry was heard.

"Wait!" the slug Sannin quickly shouted, "I'll except the whole bet, but, whoever gets this necklace is never to go anywhere without, Jiraiya, Anko or myself, until I see fit; understood?"

Both the toad master and the black haired medic were shocked at this, while Anko, who had lost her anger a good five minutes ago, said, "You also gotta tell us the story behind that necklace of yours Tsunade-sama."

The blonde medic only nodded and jumped down to the ground below and shook Naruto's small hand, saying, "Just be ready for hell when you all lose you smart mouth brat."

Then, in unison, the two blonde kids said, "We're not gonna lose to some kitsune-baka!" This earned a small laugh or chuckle from everyone, pardon, Kyuubi, who now couldn't wait to show these kits and kittens why exactly he was the strongest of all nine Biju.

As the five kids took their positions opposite the fox there was another shout as Anko threw five black objects from her perch, one at each of the kids. They each grabbed the object thrown at them and quickly discovered they were radio receives. "You're probably gonna need those if you don't want Kyuubi to know what you're planning!" the teenage kunoichi shouted.

It took another five minutes or so for the five to get their radios set up since only Temari seemed to know exactly who to set them up. She spent three of those five minutes helping Naruto as he kept insisting that he could set up his radio himself, which was clearly not the case when he couldn't even figure out what the earpiece was or where it went.

The second the sandy blonde finished setting the golden blonde up, Kyuubi barked, **"Can we please get this done and over with? I smell rain coming and I'm not going to help the Kit keep this kage bunshin maintained once it starts."**

All five trainees nodded swiftly as Temari quickly opened her fan and hopped on it along with Hinata; and by quickly pumping chakra into the oversized paper instrument, she flew up about ten meters and spoke into the radio to her companions, "I'm gonna watch what Kyuubi does from up here, guys, I'll keep Hinata out of harm's way. Hopefully I can come up with a way for us to win, 'cause I'm not really looking forward to training every single day.

"Hai!" was the reply she got from the three grounded boys, who then charged Kyuubi, Kimimaro with a blade of bone coming from each palm, and Gaara and Naruto each pulling out a kunai from a holster.

Then something unexpected happened, Kyuubi jumped up and above the three boys a moment before they got to him and towards the flying Temari. Just as the demon fox was about to claw the sandy blonde who sat in front of the young Hyuuga girl, a wall of sand rose up and not only blocked Kyuubi's attack but literally punched him away.

He flipped in mid air and landed a meter or two back from where he'd jumped and saw the sand master smirking. Kyuubi looked around and then noticed something, there was sand not only shifting around the redhead's feet, but the other boys as well. Looking up, he say a fair amount of sand clinging to the bottom of Temari's fan.

Kyuubi only had one thing to say, **"Very impressive, kit; I'm going to guess that even while everyone was talking you were slowly using your own sand to make more from the dirt and rocks around us."**

Gaara only nodded before unplugging his gourd and sending a stream of sand at the fox who dodged quickly, but only found that Kimimaro was now in the air above him and he could see his container going through a series of hand signs from just behind the Shukaku container. _**"Shit,"**_ the demon cursed to himself as he kawarimi'd just as the bone wielder landed on him.

When the smoke cleared, the silver haired boy was hunched ever a log that was not only impaled by the bones emitting from his palms, but several others that came from where his ribs should be. _"What in the?"_ Kimimaro questioned himself.

Over where the adults were watching, Anko let out a low whistle and said, "That sure is interesting," keenly taking a mental note that if Kimimaro were her enemy, she most definitely wouldn't want a hug from him.

"He must be capable of manipulating every single bone in his body," Tsunade said analytically, "Though how his muscles and skin regenerate so fast; that bloodline limit isn't suited for long fights."

"What do you mean?" Anko asked not entirely sure what the blonde medic was getting at.

"Cells in a human body are only capable of dividing a set number of times, when they reach that limit, they die, thus, there is a set limit for how long one person is capable of living," she quickly explained. "Since Kimimaro-kun's bones pierce through his muscle and skin, when he retract those bones, his cells must divide at a rapid rate to close up the holes. My point is that the more he uses his bloodline, the shorter his life will be."

"Damn," Anko cursed as she watched the bones retract into the bones chest and the holes the created quickly sealed themselves.

Back on the battlefield, Gaara was intently watching where Kyuubi had disappeared to, as were Temari and Naruto. "Behind you, Naruto-kun!" Hinata shouted through the radio. She'd barely seen the fox from the distance they were at, but the dark blue haired girl's Byakugan had caught sight of the fox just in time for Naruto to toss his kunai and graze Kyuubi's right shoulder while Gaara's sand rose to his fellow Jinchuuriki's defense.

It was then the fire red fox realized that his left claw was stuck in the wall of sand and it was slowly inching up his arm. He tried to pull out his claw a second time as he watched his contained back off to a safe distance near where Kimimaro stood. That's when Kyuubi saw more sand heading his way from Gaara. Just as he was about to be flattened between the two walls of sand, the fox jumped and had most of his left arm incased by the sand. He then roared, **"Katon: Karyu Endan no Jutsu!"** and spewed a stream of flames all over the sand, causing it to melt together. During this brief moment when the sand was now liquid glass and out of the redhead's control, Kyuubi pulled a slightly scorched left arm out.

The ancient demon now realized he was caught between the three separated teams of shinobi, Temari and Hinata at his six o'clock, Gaara and his sand at ten, and Naruto and Kimimaro at his two. _**"Not good; the kits are working in perfect sync and it's worthless hiding because of the Hyuuga. The sand girl is telling them all exactly how to move and with all this sand I can't scratch them. Now I'm starting to wonder if they really needed that power boost,"**_ Kyuubi mused over his situation. _**"I could use **_**that**_** jutsu but I'd be putting the forest at risk and there's no way a portion of charred forest without explanation will do unnoticed by that shithole."**_

Before the fox had time to do anything, the golden blonde and silver haired boys were on him. The lanky, paled skin one was holding a much longer bone sword now, made up of two bones. Obviously by the way his left arm was slightly limp, he had ripped out his own bones to form a weapon. Naruto meanwhile, now had crimson red eyes and his pupils were becoming more slit-like by the second. Kyuubi hadn't even felt the golden blonde tap into his chakra.

As he ducked under the Kimimaro's slicing bone the fox's container nailed him square in the jaw and sent him skyward, _**"He's using Tsunade's tricks now?! Damn, the Kit's got one surprise after another."**_

When Kyuubi flew up past where Temari and Hinata were hovering on the fan, the sandy blonde cried out, "Now!" Immediately, all five of them were going through hand signs as fast as they could. The redhead, his sister, and the young Hyuuga finished their jutsu in unison and cried out, "Fuuton: Daitoppa!" and each of them spat a heavy stream of wind and kept going as Naruto and Kimimaro finished their seals.

The impact from the fierce winds assaulting the kage bunshin body he was using continued to strain the demon fox as he barely kept it from disintegrating. That's when he heard the end for his temporary body, in the cry of two boys shouting, "Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu!"

Kyuubi was barely able to turn his head as he saw two rather large fireballs soaring towards him, all he thought was, _**"Just how strong will these kits and kittens become?"**_ The fire red fox wasn't hit with two balls of fire in the end; instead it was a single one that could probably kill even a skilled Jounin if hit dead on, as the two balls merged into one when they came in contact with the three streams of wind.

Because of the roaring flames, no one heard the poof of the kage bunshin disappearing, but it was clear that the five kids and just done something that only Anko had believed they could do. As the kids ended their jutsu and Temari floated to the ground with Hinata, the snake mistress turned to the perverted novelist next to her and said, "Pay up, Ero-Sennin."

Reluctantly, Jiraiya reached into his yukata and pulled out his checkbook and wrote something down in it before tearing a check out and handing it to the manipulative teenager. A second later she tapped him on the shoulder and said, "You're missing two zeros."

Cursing himself and rewrote the check thinking, _"How could I be so stupid as to bet _that_ much?! And all for a stupid three second peek."_

Anko took the check and lovingly caressed it against her cheek thinking about everything she could be with all this wonderful cash.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Sometime later that day, in the Akatsuki headquarters in the Land of the Waterfall, Pein and his blue haired partner were standing on a balcony with Zetsu and a slightly annoyed Kisame. "Thank you for this information Zetsu, it is very," the organization's leader thought for a brief moment, "interesting."

As Zetsu disappeared, Kisame snapped, "So now he's going to get the funds alone and I have to wait here why?"

Pein turned to the blue skinned man and said, "Zetsu is capable of traveling far greater distances on his own. He'll probably be back tomorrow if he does stop for one of his snacks."

Kisame only raised an eyebrow at this and before he could say anything, the woman next to the auburn haired man said, "You honest don't want to know, but if you're so curious, find a dead animal and leave it near the base and watch what happens tomorrow."

Now Kisame was probably the least imaginative out of the Seven Swordsmen of Kirigakure, but he was able vaguely picture the two minded man finding a dead animal and devouring it without so much as to think of cooking it. "I get the picture," he said nauseously as his skin seemed to become a paler shade of blue, almost so it was a sickly grey.

In another section of the base, Sasori was at work tinkering with Hiruko, his most often used puppet, but no longer his favorite. As he worked on the new armor for his puppet's back, which was an extremely awkward face in appearance, he glanced up at the Sandaime Kazekage who hung on the wall by the back of his robe. The puppet's head and arms were on a table below it with several tools lying around them. He sighed heavily and thought, _"If only had bothered to learn kage bunshin, I could get this done far quicker and not waste so much time."_ Silently he went back to work hating the fact that Kakuzu insisted he return to base to keep an eye on the snake that relentlessly prowled the bases halls.

Sasori didn't mind this since he had performed three exhausting missions in the past few months and hated being made to retrieve funds for the organization when Zetsu could easily collect all the funds himself in a few days. But Sasori knew why the leader never let Zetsu retrieve the larger funds from the organizations contacts, and that was because of the yellow eyed man's rather unsightly taste for human flesh. If the flytrap resembling shinobi were to ever get enough ryo on hand, he'd manage to find some underground slave trade and by a few to quench his sick desires.

But he digressed on his musings, everyone in this organization had something unsavory about them, he made people into puppets sometimes while their hearts were still beating and were fully conscious. His partner had his sick obsession with children and obtaining as many jutsu as inhumanly possible. Kakuzu, being the organization's treasurer, was only because he loved money and no one else wanted such an irritating position. That blue haired woman spoke so little and he rarely saw her so he wasn't sure what was going on in her head, but he knew that there must be something. As for Pein, or as all but the woman called him, Leader, he wanted power, not in the obsessive way Orochimaru did but more that he just wanted the power to control the tides of war and battle on the planet.

He knew that Uchiha Itachi most likely had that arrogance that he heard all Uchiha of the head household had, but he couldn't tell. He only met the boy once and even in the presence of someone superior to him, the raven haired boy had remained calm, cool, and calculating. Even when he spoke, the boy neither frowned nor did he smile, he only kept that slightly irritating, and unreadable line on his face much in the way Pein did. _"Well, he'll probably be more entertaining than that Kisame is,"_ the puppet master thought as he stood up and went in search of Pein.

A minute later Orochimaru appeared and just when he was about to enter Sasori's room having heard him leave when he say the hunched man standing there, and glaring at him with those puppet like eyes of his. Without warning his mouth opened and he shot a few poison dipped senbon at the snake Sannin, sending him running for his life.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

The evening after the training session with Kyuubi, each of the five kids had on Tsunade's necklace, Kimimaro having skillfully broken the crystal pendent that hung from the blonde Sannin's neck into five equal pieces with the bone from his palm. They had all listened to the slug mistress's story about how she'd given the necklace to her younger brother, Nawaki, as a birthday gift and that he was dead the next day and how eventually she met Dan, whom she also gave the necklace to and was killed when she failed to be able to heal his wounds.

This was shortly before Orochimaru left the village and the Yondaime had been elected. Her ex-partner had coldly taunted her about the necklace being cursed and eventually after the snake had left, so did she along with Shizune who was Dan's niece.

All five of the kids had promised Tsunade that they'd never die, at least until they were old and had all found a place where they belonged in this world.

It was as they were all preparing for bed when Tsunade said they would put off training till they reached grass in a few days and that she knew of a hot spring village just past the border. To say the five kids were happy with the news would be an understatement, they were completely ecstatic, especially since not one of them had ever been to a hot spring.

As soon as all the kids fell asleep, Tsunade whipped out a scroll and released to reveal several bottles of sake from around the continent. As she poured some for herself, her apprentice, the toad master, and the snake mistress, she said, "This is my special stock and I say we make a toast to something special."

Then the four of them looked at the five kids sleeping together. From left to right it was Kimimaro, Temari, Naruto, Hinata, and Gaara. Anko was the first to raise her cup, soon followed by the other three. "To these kids who one day are gonna kick our asses for all the crap we put them through!" the teenager shouted. The others shrugged lightly clanged their cups together and drank. As the two Sannin downed their sake, they unfortunately knew that the snake mistress was right and that one day the five sleeping youths would get back at them one way or another.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Kyuubi laughed inside his container's mind as he watched the four shinobi drink to his Jinchuuriki and his companions. _**"Though that bunshin they fought didn't even have a thousandth of my strength, these five managed to best it and it was really only three of them fighting it. When they're older, these kits and kittens, along with anyone else who joins this ever growing band vagabonds, are going to be monsters among shinobi. Speaking of monsters, I wonder what that neko Nibi's going to do when we meet,"**_ the fox mused to himself. Then for some odd reason he felt every last one of his hair's stand on end. _**"I think I'd rather not know."**_

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

In Kumogakure no Sato the most isolated of the five major hidden as it was surrounded by treacherous mountains, a girl of about fourteen was standing in the Yondaime Raikage's office. Both women had identical golden blonde hair done in a low ponytail that almost went down to their knees. The girl was dressed in a bright purple top that only covered the upper part of her torso, leaving her stomach exposed, while her pants where slightly baggy and of a dark purple. If you looked at the faces of the two women only one difference would be their eyes. The teenager's were extremely cat-like in shape and the black slit pupils surrounded by gold was very different from the normal eyes of her mother who had very dark, almost black, eyes.

"Did you need something Yugito?" the Raikage, Yukoto asked seeing her daughter looked slightly distressed.

"I-It's Nibi, mother, she said that she's sensing two Biju or Jinchuuriki traveling towards the village, one she knows is weaker, meaning the Ichibi and the other is strong enough that she fears it might be the Kyuubi," Yugito explained.

"I see," Yukoto replied looking her daughter in the eye. Then she asked, "Yugito-chan, do you remember a man named Kazama Arashi?"

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**A/N: And I think I'll stop there just to mess with you guys for once. I hope you enjoyed Kyuubi getting his nine tailed ass whooped for once in his life and how I started to add that unpredictability in Naruto that we love so much. Also, Itachi will have a heavy pocky addiction by the time he's heavily involved in the story. Well I'm still debating on the poll but I will definitely decide by the time I post the next chapter on Monday or Tuesday so hang tough.**

**Translations:**

**Katon: Karyu Endan no Jutsu – Fire Release: Fire Dragon Missile Technique**


	12. Ch 11:Two More

**A/N: Alright people I've ultimately decided that there will be a poll; however, I will only be accepting votes for the following kunoichi and there will only be ONE winner. You all can choose from Anko, Kin, Tayuya, Temari, and Yugito. I would also like to point out that in the event there is a tie, there will be a second poll between the two characters. The poll will probably last about as long as or possibly even longer than the last two. Now this chapter will most likely introduce Tayuya and Kin and if not they will definitely be in the next chapter. So without further a due, here comes chapter eleven. (I gain nothing other than self satisfaction from writing this so you can't sue me!)**

**---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------**

**Chapter 11: Two More**

It was near midnight as Yugito stood in one of the few grassy training grounds that existed in Kumogakure as a thin wisp of smoke rose from her right hand. A log some five meters away from her was charred and smoking as a result of her Raiton technique. A thin layer a sweat adorned her brow below her Kumo hitai-ate which shone beautifully in the light of the nearly full moon.

The golden blonde kunoichi starred at her trembling right hand and clenched her fist as she spoke to her black haired tenant. _"Nibi-chan, you said that the two like me coming towards the village contain Biju you are familiar with, correct?"_

"**That I did, Kitten,"** the black haired demon answered calmly. **"One I know **_**very**_** personally, the other though is just a psychotic sociopath that only thinks of murder and sex."**

The golden eyed teenager coughed as a faint blush came across her slightly tanned skin when her personally demon finished, then retorting, _"I could've gone without knowing that last part."_ Quickly regaining her center, Yugito inquired, _"Do you know how long it maybe before they arrive? And before you answer, don't go off on some tangent about what you plan on doing to that other demon you know personally, there are enough damnably disturbing images engraved in my memory as it is!"_ the cat container finished with a small cat-like hiss, a habit acquired from Nibi herself.

"**I would say no longer than two months, Kitten, but I honestly can't wait for my old **_**friend**_** to arrive. Maybe his container is someone you'll find appealing,"** the demonic cat finished, poking at her container's buttons.

"_You know the brat's ten years younger than me, at least according to mother. She mentioned him possibly being the son of that spiky blonde guy from Konoha who visited when I was seven,"_ the cat eyed teen said.

"**You should learn some manners and refer to him as the Yondaime Hokage, Kitten," **Nibi said jokingly.

"_You don't respect a damn thing so why should I? You're a bigger influence on me than my mother,"_ the female Jinchuuriki shot back.

"**That may be true, but- There's a rat! Kill it, kill it, kill it!!"** the two tailed feline shouted in her container's head at the sight of the rodent.

Yugito watched the hairless tailed creature for a moment before pouncing on it like the cat within her and snapping the small mammal's neck with her unusually large canines. As she started to devour her prey, the golden blonde kunoichi thought only one thing, _"Being a cat freaking rocks!"_

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

It was the weekend following Kyuubi's more or less humiliating defeat at the hands of the five kids and the group of nine was currently standing outside the local onsen in a small village that was just over the border that separated the Lands of Fire and Grass. The five kids were happy to say the least but Tsunade's eyebrow was twitching erratically and Anko and Shizune could only stare at the sign while Jiraiya giggled perversely.

In a strained and exasperated voice, the slug Sannin said, "They made it… coed?" Just as the blonde gambling addict knew the toad Sannin behind her was about to go on one of his perverted and annoying rants she turned and kicked him in the groin, sending the poor novelist flying almost one kilometer east. Taking a deep breath she turned to the golden blonde boy next to her and asked, "Naruto-kun, would you mind making a kage bunshin of Kyuubi, I need him to do me a favor?"

The fox-boy only nodded in fear and quickly performed the already familiar hand sign, revealing a Kyuubi that was half torn between laughter and fear. When he looked up at the slug mistress he said, **"You Tsunade, deserved to be feared by any man who reads that orange book of his."**

As fear subsided from Naruto he instantly remembered something he'd seen the last time him and the demon fox beside him had privately spoken. "Kyuubi didn't you have a bookcase full of those little orange books that Ero-sensei carries around, inside of your cage?" the golden blonde inquired remembering the Kyuubi standing over one of the said books a night when he'd gone to talk to the demon after falling asleep.

Said chibified demon instantly stopped laughing as his beautiful fire-red fur turned ghostly white as the blonde Sannin stared down at him with an evil and suspicious glare. He quickly rose to his defense, **"I've been sealed in the Kit for four and a half long years and there are certain requirements a demon needs-"** Before he could even finish, he was punted like a football in the same direction in which the white haired author had by the gambling addict, only to reappear as a new kage bunshin upon Tsunade's request a moment later grumbling incoherent curses.

"Now Kyuubi-_sama_ I would like to ask that you stand guard out here while Anko-chan, Shizune, Hinata-chan, Temari-chan, and I go into the hot springs. If I find they have some sort of divider Naruto-kun, Gaara-kun, and Kimimaro-kun will join us," the slug mistress stated.

"And if they don't?" Anko questioned her fellow kunoichi, not really wanting to leave the three boys hung high and dry outside just because they were male.

That's when the blonde Sannin removed a scroll from her jacket and replied, "I've got my own for just such an emergency."

The snake mistress smirked and retorted, "You seem to be prepared for almost anything that would deny a perverted man like the Ero-Sennin of his fun."

"He's the reason why I have such a hate for perverts like him and those books he rights based on his 'research' just lead to people like stubborn Hatake brat," the busty medic explained. "It actually amazes me that Arashi was corrupted by the perverted baboon, though I can't say the same for Hiashi."

The teenage Kunoichi's eyes grew wide before blurting out, "By Hiashi, you mean Hyuuga Hiashi, the biggest pain in the ass to become head of the Hyuuga clan to date? He actually reads that shit?!" Tsunade simply nodded and her kunoichi counterpart broke out in a painful fit of laughter as she held her side in joyful agony. "That's gotta be the funniest and sweetest bit of info on a Hyuuga I've ever gotten. If I was still in the hellhole that would make grade A blackmail material," she said between laughs.

Ten minutes later, the entire group minus Jiraiya and Kyuubi were in the onsen, Tsunade's personal iron barrier separating the three boys from the group's five female members. Thanks to Anko, courtesy of all that sweet ryo she got off of Jiraiya, they were able to pay the owner to allow them to enjoy this once in a blue moon experience in privacy.

The golden blonde boy and the redhead were forced to pile several of the surrounding rocks in the spring to make acceptable seats so they wouldn't be forced to stand while the bone user, being tall for his age, had no such issues. The two Jinchuuriki drifted in and out of sleep as they felt completely relaxed and carefree for the first time in their lives and their older companion appeared to be meditating with the only indication of him actually still being alive being the faint growth and shrinkage of his nostrils.

On the other side of the barrier which Tsunade dubbed, _My Iron Will_, all of the females were enjoying the much needed relaxation. The female Sannin, with Hinata seated in her lap and Shizune had their backs to the bamboo wall that separated the springs from the village street, while Temari sat against the wall to their left, and Anko against the one to their right.

"Why the hell don't they have one of these back in Suna," the wind mistress said to no one in particular as she slowly let her mouth dip beneath the surface.

"I think you mean to ask why the hell didn't we stop at one of these sooner, Temari-chan," the snake mistress said back, resting the back of her head against the edge of the stress relieving pool.

"Just shut up and relax you two," the slug mistress lazily snapped, "We may not get to enjoy ourselves like this for Kami knows how long, and as far as I know there's only hot springs in the southern end of that mountain range that makes up most of the Land of Lightning so we won't be seeing any once we get there." The blonde medic then winced for a moment before releasing a drawn out sigh as she felt some of her stiff joints pop and crack.

The young Hyuuga present was more relaxed than the rest having fallen asleep with her small head resting against Tsunade's well endowed chest. The not so fortunate Shizune was envious of the teenager to her right who was four years younger than her, yet had bust that the black haired medic knew instinctively she'd never match. Putting these rather annoying thoughts into the back of her mind she tilted her head back and basked in the unending warmth that the spring provided her.

On a hill some one hundred meters away, Jiraiya and Kyuubi sat viewing through identical telescopes at the sight of the Tsunade and Anko, neither really giving a damn about the two children or the black haired flat-chest who sat between the two busty maidens. The young Hyuuga however blocked most of the view of the blonde medic much to the two perverts' displeasure. Their fun didn't last long as without warning, the white haired Sannin was struck dead in the forehead with a wooden bucket that left its mark where it impacted. The demon fox fortunately just laid flat against the ground as another bucket flew over him, just grazing the ears he quickly pressed down against his skull. _**"Note to self: Do not stay in wide open spaces with varying projectiles and a pissed off Tsunade,"**_ Kyuubi mentally noted. _**"But to hit him with that kind of accuracy at a hundred meters… No it just must be dumb luck combined with Jiraiya's magnetism for insane punishment."**_

"Did you get them?" Anko asked lazily as Tsunade lowered herself back into the water and allowing the dark blue haired Hyuuga to sit on her lap once again.

"Got the baboon, but I missed the fox," the slug Sannin replied only slightly irritated.

That's when Kimimaro and Naruto's heads popped over the oversized barrier as the golden blonde asked sleepily, "What's happening over here, I was taking a nice nap." Then without warning, both boys were struck right between the eyes by a bar of soap, one thrown by the snake mistress the other by a now completely red wind mistress. This knocked the fox-boy back down into the water, but completely unaffected the pale green eyed boy.

Looking down at Temari, who had turned away from him and was covering herself, slightly annoyed, the bone user said, "I think you forgot I change the density of my bones, Temari-chan."

The teenage kunoichi across from her then caught an evil glint in the eyes of the girl across from her as she reached for her battle fan, and quickly jumping at Tsunade, Hinata, and Shizune, Anko yelled, "Hit the deck!"

"Stop staring you pervert! Daikamaitachi no Jutsu!" the sandy blonde roared, opening her fan as she swung it. Kimimaro quickly ducked behind the wall, but unfortunately for him and the other two boys behind it, they along with the slug mistress's precious barrier, were swept up by the devastating winds that the teal eyed girl had created. The golden blonde, the redhead, and the silver haired all landed face first on the barrier some ten meters away, much to their discomfort and the blonde Sannin's displeasure.

"Oi, Temari-chan," the snake user said sitting up and rubbing the back of her hand lightly. Temari turned to the teenager with a cocked eyebrow, as she continued, "You got some serious anger issues to work out, kid." The sandy blonde huffed as her cheeks slightly reddened again earning a laugh from the other four females.

That's when she caught a faint glimmer of light where Tsunade had previously thrown the two buckets and picking up a bar of soap as it floated by, the wind mistress hurled it with all her might at the glimmer which disappeared seconds later and was replaced by a barely visible puff of smoke.

Inside of a now unconscious Naruto's mind, Kyuubi grumbled, **"If it's not one of the women trying to kill ya it's another, and Nibi's about ten times as worse as Anko, Tsunade, and Temari put together."**

Hearing his tenant say this, the young blue eyed boy asked, "You think she'll end up killing us Kyuubi?"

"**Kit, worry about **_**making**_** it to Kumo before worrying about what trouble is waiting for us there,"** was the demon fox's reply as he rubbed a small lump above his left eye. Then thinking to himself, _**"Though I suppose worrying about what that crazed feline is going to try to do to me when we arrive, **_**is**_** something that we could worry about, especially if she's already detected me and that damn tanuki are heading closer towards her."**_

Said tanuki was curled up into a tightly compacted ball as he whispered to himself, _**"I'm not going insane, because only the insane talk to themselves for three days straight, and I've only been talking to myself for sixteen days, so there's no way I can be insane if I've been talking this long."**_ If anyone were capable of hearing the many other things that Shukaku whispered to himself in the dark corner of his cage where he no longer saw or heard what was happening on the outside, they would not wonder but easily know that the sand spirit had long ago gone insane and he had just taken it to a new level.

Several hours and many bandages later, the nine members of the group had split in three, one being Jiraiya all by his lonesome in a room that the slug Sannin had locked from the outside, Tsunade, Shizune, and Anko in a room of their own, and the five kids who managed to weasel their way into getting the largest room.

Inside the three kunoichi's room, the snake mistress and gambling addicted blonde were guzzling down sake while Shizune tried desperately to get her first good night's sleep in a long while. "Temari-chan's gonna to be twice as scary as you are by the time she's and adult, Tsunade-sama," the purple haired teenager said in a drunken slur.

It was unclear if the medic kunoichi heard her or if she simply wasn't able to understand Anko's sentence in her intoxicated state which slowly worsened as she downed another cup of the throat burning liquid. "Oi, Anko-chan," Tsunade started say, hitting her drinking partner in the back and accidentally hurling her into the nearest wall, knocking her out. The blonde Sannin stared for a moment before breaking out in a short fit of laughter before falling backwards onto the bed where her apprentice lay. Cursing to herself, Shizune knew this would be another unpleasant night.

The kids were enjoying themselves in a much more peaceful manner by quietly watching television with all of them sitting on the king sized bed that the room offered. Temari sat in the middle in the front edge of the bed with a giggling Hinata on her lap. To the two girls' right, the tanuki container lay flat on his stomach with his gourd resting against the bed in front of him. The golden blonde boy had already fallen asleep lying peaceful on his left side at the head of the bed. The tallest member of the group, Kimimaro sat on the wind mistress's left with his legs swinging lightly off the foot of the bed.

"Temari-chan," the bone user said after a small yawn, "Tomorrow if we get a chance, would you and Gaara-san care to spar against me and Naruto-san?" the pale skinned boy had had but the one training session against Kyuubi with the sandy blonde and apart from her display with the Fuuton: Daitoppa and her flying ability he had seen little of her other abilities, which he secretly wished to see firsthand.

"Maybe," was the wind mistress's only reply as she toyed with Hinata's hair which over the past few months had grown from just touching her shoulders to about halfway past them. Temari enjoyed training, but unlike when they fought Kyuubi and when she had sparred with Naruto the one time, the teal eyed girl really didn't think she'd enjoy having to dance around a clearing avoiding the swords that Kimimaro used constantly. Plus, she had a bad feeling that if she fought the bone user, her fan that her mother had left behind was far too valuable to her to risk getting sliced to ribbons by a boy with a very overused bloodline limit.

"Come on Temari-nee-chan, it'll be fun," the redhead encouraged his sister.

The wind mistress looked at her pale jade eyed brother and replied, "Fine, but it's me and Naruto-kun against you and bone boy, Gaara," finishing with a small huff. It wasn't long before everyone was comfortably resting; Temari was cuddling close to the fox-boy she had begun to adore, while Gaara and Hinata snuggled together in a rather cute and adorable fashion. The eldest and lankiest child however, was tied down to the chair by the sandy blonde as what she considered _punishment_ for acting like Jiraiya. The young kunoichi also warned him that if he broke the ropes and she found him anywhere near the bed when she awoke, that he'd fear her more than the snake and slug mistresses, all while wearing a slightly maniacal grin that wasn't too much different from the one Anko wore when she got into a fight.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

The next day, the group began traveling east towards the Land of Lightning, though between them and their destination stood the Lands of Rice Fields and the Sea. They'd traveled for about ten kilometers uneventfully barring you excused the few times that Hinata, Gaara, and Naruto got lost in the grass for which the country was named after. Sometime after noon, they were able to find a clearing devoid of the grass that went up to the wind mistress's nose and the _perverted_ bone user's chin.

The snake mistress cooked up her own homemade dango balls that she had gotten the ingredients for back in the hot spring village. Everyone was impressed with variety of food that the teenager was able to cook, and though she accepted the compliments she only said that it had been the Sandaime Hokage that had thought her most of the recipes she knew and that she had _borrowed_ the dango recipe from the shop in Konoha and added her own little tweaks to it.

It was after lunch that the kids decided to have their little spar. As the two blondes prepared to fight the redhead and the lanky silver haired boy, the lavender eyed girl sat over on the edge of the clearing with the others. No one apart from Anko was worried about what kind of damage the four young shinobi would do to each other especially after what Temari had done the previous day.

"Tsunade-sama, you know that Temari-chan may end up nearly killing Kimimaro-kun for what he did yesterday, ne?" the purple haired snake user said to the blonde Sannin who only cocked an eyebrow out her.

"Well if Kimimaro-kun doesn't want to get caught and killed, then perhaps he shouldn't have asked her to spar," was the busty medic's reply. "Temari-chan and Naruto-kun are both headstrong but aren't really the type to hold a grudge for a long time, while Kimimaro-kun and Gaara-kun are both a little insecure when it comes to relying on others which actually makes these two teams good for all four of them."

"How exactly do you figure that, Tsunade?" the toad master questioned his long time teammate.

"Though they all get along and proved that they can work together in a pinch, I noticed that Naruto-kun didn't particularly like taking orders from Temari-chan and I'm pretty sure that she'd be the same way if it was Naruto-kun giving out orders. As for Gaara-kun and Kimimaro-kun, with it being just the two of them, they'll have to open up their emotional barriers a little so they can truly depend on each other without a second thought," was Tsunade's long winded answer.

"And when did you notice all of this, because I never remember the two blondes arguing over anything other than who passed out first for the few days after that spar they had," the snake mistress said, shooting another question at the gambling addicted medic.

The slug Sannin sighed heavily and simply retorted, "Just watch, they don't have radios this time around so when they start shouting orders at each other you'll see."

Then, without warning, a Kyuubi enhanced Naruto and an equally fierce looking Temari ran towards their two opponents. "Naruto-kun, you stall Kimimaro and I'll get my otouto, it shouldn't-" the sandy blonde started to say as they ran before being interrupted.

"No way, you take Kimimaro and I'll get Gaara. That giant fan of yours can block his bones these tiny claws can't!" the golden blonde shot at his teammate, clearly not wanting to risk anything against the bone user who he knew had the upper hand against him.

"Fine, but don't get caught; I can't win on my own!" the wind mistress spat at the fox-boy showing that she really didn't like taking orders, especially from someone younger than her.

"My thoughts exactly, Temari-chan, though I doubt Kimimaro's a match for that fan of yours," the now crimson eyed boy said.

As the two ran towards their opponents, the green eyed boy and the pale jade eyed boy were having their own disagreements. "Gaara-san, don't bother wasting your sandy and chakra to defend me, my bloodline is more than enough."

Gaara was only lightly surprised by what his partner said as he called his sand back away from the older shinobi. Looking nervously at Kimimaro he said, "Kimimaro, don't blame me if my nee-chan knocks you out again, she has a very bad temper and you made her pretty made yesterday."

"I did nothing wrong, I only tried to talk with Anko-sensei and Tsunade-sama yesterday; she's the one who overreacted," the bone user shot back coldly as he prepared for the two oncoming opponents.

The lanky boy let the fox-boy rush by him towards his teammate, while he raised both his arms and blocked the downward swing Temari sent at him with her fan, causing the bone user's feet to sink into the ground. As the sandy blonde backed off for a moment, she used her affinity for wind to hover in front of Kimimaro for another moment before bringing her fan down against his hardened arms for a second, third, and fourth hammering swing. This successfully pinned the bone user almost knee deep in the ground, leaving him immobile.

The silver haired boy cursed to himself as he looked behind him momentarily to see Naruto dancing around the ever-flowing sand his partner was using to try to stop the fox-boy. He thought, _"Perfect, two minutes in and we're going to lose!" _his competitive attitude began surface. He then watched as the kunoichi a few mere centimeters out of his reach, sat on her fan and flew over him and towards the combating golden blonde and redhead.

The sand master was struggling and he knew it. The Kyuubi enhanced Naruto before him kept easily dancing out of the flow of his sand and he'd yet to land a hit. Yet, while the fox-boy kept dodging, he had somehow managed to get three good punches past the Suna no Tate and Gaara now had a nicely forming bruise under his left eye.

It was as soon as he heard the cry, "Move it, Naruto!" that the tanuki container realized just how much trouble he was in. He watched as his fellow Jinchuuriki jumped over his head and went for a roundhouse kick as he came down. At the same time, the redhead's sister was dropping from about five meters up with that oh so heavy fan dropping toward him like a large black piston. The sand master quickly sent all the sand inside his gourd and created as thick a shield as possible above him.

Then a mere second before impact, Temari slid off the top of the fan where she'd been kneeling and kicked the thin side, sending it and her in a full moon arc that brought the opposite end of the fan on a crash course with Gaara's jaw. There was a sickening crunch on impact as Gaara didn't even fly up a foot when his face crashed into the heavily condensed shield of sand he created.

On the edge of the clearing everyone, pardon Hinata who covered her eyes, hissed as they saw Gaara take a one way trip to pain city.

Naruto was rather shocked at how badly his partner had just injured her brother, who was now half covered in sand with blood pooling out of his mouth and his jaw slightly twisted. Both blondes then looked at Kimimaro who was now using his bones like picks to try and unearth his legs desperately, not evening turning at the sound of his partner's jaw being shattered.

Before the two could even try to finish the fight, Tsunade appeared in front of them and said, "I think you two won fair and square. Now go wait with Anko-chan and the others while I help Kimimaro-kun and tend to Gaara-kun's injuries."

As the teal eyed girl and the once again blue eyed boy got over to where the others had watched the match, Anko was the first to speak, "You are one freaking scary kid when you use that fan, Temari-chan. I think I'll get my own sometime; it'd be great for keeping perverts away." The sandy blonde sweat dropped lightly at this imagining the snake mistress knocking copies of Jiraiya into the horizon with a battle fan that looked very similar to her own.

Laughing nervously, the wind mistress said, "Just promise you won't use it to punish us during training, ok Anko-san?" The teenager's eyes lit up at this and Temari went from nervous to just plan scared. "You wouldn't really do that, would you Anko-san?"

Anko scratched the back of her head and replied, "Don't know, I guess it would depend on just how badly you screwed up and what mood I was in." The teenage kunoichi put a finger to her chin and thought for a moment before saying, "Actually, I think I'd just use it to punish Gaara-kun, Kimimaro-kun, and Naruto-kun."

Said fox-boy nervously swallowed the lump in his throat before yelling at his fellow blonde, "You baka! Why'd you have to give her that idea; I happen to like living you know?!"

Temari only smirked as she eyed Naruto in much the same way she had Kimimaro the previous night. She picked her fan up and quickly slammed it down, missing the golden blonde completely by one or two millimeters. The fox-boy took a step back as the wind mistress said, "Do you want a broken jaw too, Naruto-_kun_?" in a very unnerving manner, causing the Jinchuuriki to sweat bullets, shake his head negatively, and quickly take cover behind the purple haired teenager in less than a second.

Shaking like a leaf, Naruto quickly responded, "I-I take it b-back Temari-ch-chan; you're n-not a baka, you're a g-genius! And I really like living so don't hit me, please!" begging for his life.

Temari's smile quickly changed to a genuine one as she waltzed over to the fox-boy and said, "Thank you, Naru-kun," before planting a light kiss to everyone's surprise, including Tsunade's and a certain bone user who were wide eyed with shock. Both blondes were now blushing a deep shade of red that easily rivaled Gaara's hair.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

The group was stuck waiting two days for Tsunade to completely repair the redhead's jaw, which was aided along by the minor healing abilities provided from the tanuki sealed with in the sand master. It was a total of four days after the sparring session that the band of nine shinobi and one pig arrived in a rather rundown and deserted village in the Land of Rice Fields. Anko had noticed that little by little the Ten no Juin on the back of her neck was beginning to hurt worse as they neared the Land of Sea, where she had been found almost seven years previously by Konoha ANBU. This however, was something she kept to herself.

Upon entering the village initially, the slug mistress said, "It looks this town was raided not too long ago by bandits; we should see if we can find anything of use and be on our way." Everyone nodded in agreement, including Hinata who was beginning to understand more and more that some places made even the hell she went through in Konoha seem like a paradise. They split into four groups, Naruto and the wind mistress sticking with Anko; Gaara with Shizune and Tonton; the lavender eyed girl with the slug Sannin; and Kimimaro with Jiraiya.

The group searched the town for close to half an hour with little success and were preparing to give up hope on finding anything when they heard a high pitched scream that could rival Temari's and the sound of shattering glass. They all converged on a rundown house that was one of the more intact buildings in the village, though the shattered windows and tattered sheet that was used for a door didn't do it much justice.

Anko and Jiraiya were the first to enter to find a rather drunk and disgusting looking man corning two young girls, a fiery red head holding a broken sake bottle as she stood over a cowering black haired girl. Both are wearing nothing more than dirtied grey shirts that are covered with dirt, sweat, grim, and blood in the case of the redhead. Before either the snake mistress or the toad master could do anything, the man lunged at the girls, but was stabbed in the right eye by the seemingly fearless girl who shouted, "Take that, fucker!" much to the surprise and distaste of those present.

Then, grabbing the other girl's wrist, the redhead pushed past the injured man before running straight into Anko's legs. Before the redhead could shout anything at the teenager, the purple haired kunoichi shouted, "Get outside now, both of you!" Muttering an inaudible 'thanks,' the two girls ran outside and this time into Temari and Kimimaro, the former being knocked down on her rear.

Rubbing her head, the redhead looked at the fallen wind mistress and barked, "Watch where the hell you're standing, bitch!"

The still shaking black haired girl then said, "Tayuya, y-you really should watch your language," with a bit of a stutter.

The girl called Tayuya then barked at her companions, "Shut up, Kin, I can talk however the hell I want to!"

That's when Tsunade walked over to the flaming redhead and said, "Your friend is right, it's extremely impolite to use such vulgar language." Tayuya then looked up at the slug Sannin with an ice cold glare and spat at the busty blonde's feet before standing up.

"And what would an old hag like you know, you're not my damn mother, and I know so 'cause she's dead," the dark brown eyed girl coldly stated. As Tayuya helped Kin to her feet, the black haired girl staggered, wincing in pain as she clutched her left leg.

Her built-in concern as a medic-nin kicking in, the chronic gambler said to Kin, "Let me take a look at your leg, I should be able to help." Before the black eyed girl had a chance to answer, her redheaded companion stepped between her and Tsunade and shook her head.

"We don't need your help or pity!" Tayuya shouted defiantly. "We've been fine on own for a year, we don't need-" before she could finish however, the slug mistress kneeled down and pulled the raving redhead and her black haired companion into a motherly hug.

As she brushed both of their trashed, and unwashed hair, Anko and Jiraiya stepped out of the ruined house, and she said to the girls, "It's ok, everything's ok; you two can take a nap then we'll talk." For the next few minutes, Tsunade stayed like that with the two girls as they both slowly fell asleep, and rested peacefully for the first time in months.

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**A/N: That was a tough ending there, but I got through it and wrapped up another chapter. Hope you enjoyed the hot springs bit and the little fight between the two blondes and the redhead and bone boy. Now I have a one poll to add that will be only up until the next chapter comes out and will actually decide the next chapter. I want to know if you want me to do a chapter for the Land of Sea where Anko will get some memories back and the group meets Israbi or if you want them to head straight to Lightning and the encounter with Yugito and Nibi. You have until the end of Wednesday to vote so get to it. Please review like always and I'll see you for the next chapter. Ja ne! **

**New Character Ages:**

**Tayuya – 6**

**Tsuchi Kin – 5**

**Translations:**

**Daikamaitachi no Jutsu: Great Cutting Wind Technique**


	13. Note

**A/N: Hey there loyal readers and reviewers. I know I haven't updated in over a month and it's like an angry monkey on my back that will not go away. Unfortunately, school work and the fact that I work a horrendous five days a week has not made getting to this thing any easier. I would like to say though that I will be postponing the trip to the Land of Sea since I discovered, courtesy of an insightful reviewer that the Land of Sea is located south of the Land of Water. Thus I decided that the group will go there after Haku and Zabuza join up after the time skip I have planned following the group's encounter with Yugito and Nibi. I am split however, on whether introducing Israbi will be a good idea or not. I'll leave that up to you guys to decide. Now I don't know when I'll be able to get it out, but chapter 12 will be out soon hopefully before the end of a month. If not, please be patient. Now here are the current standings for Naruto's permanent partner/mate/whatever you guys wanna call it: **

**Anko – 6 (Snake + Fox ?) **

**Temari – 6 (This might end up being the pairing, just a feeling) **

**Yugito – 6 (A three way tie… wow) **

**Tayuya – 3 (No comment) **

**Kin – 1 (No love, eh Kin?) **

**Alright, so I'll be seeing you all when chapter 12 makes its debut and please note that this note will be deleted once I put up chapter 12 So stay tuned for it.**


	14. Final Note

**A/N: Ok I'm going to get straight to the point; I've ultimately decided after rereading what I've written for **_**A Reason for Living**_** more times than I can count to scrap the whole "band of misfits" plot I've been going with and redo the entire fic. Now before you decide to kill me, send me threatening responses to this and the like, let me give you my reasons for doing this. First off, as many people had previously pointed out to me, TO MANY CHARACTERS!!! I now see the error of my ways of trying something so foolish. Second, plot holes, several small easily fixed ones, and a few bottomless pit-like ones that would ultimately lead to the story's implosion at some point. Third, the story WAS intended for an eventually romantic relationship between Naruto and Anko, but somewhere I lost sight of that and decided that even with that endless vote I had going that a blonde threesome between Naruto, Temari, and Yugito would be more entertaining to write than stressing over how to get Naruto and Anko together. Lastly, despite it being an AU fic, I had some characters way out of character, especially Tsunade and her not fearing blood. That, and the fact that I took every opportunity to bash Akatsuki, namely Orochimaru, though he does deserve it. Simply put, it was a mess; yes it did have its entertaining moments, yes the Hebi-teme bashing was nice, and yes Tsunade's miniature traveling orphanage of eventual ninja awesomeness was unique, but all in all I want to rewrite the whole thing, possibly make something better out of it, and if not go back to this and beg forgiveness for abandoning this idea. I've now officially closed that four month poll for Naruto's mate/ partner or whatever you people want to refer to the chick as. Here are the results:**

**Temari – 35 (Blonde two-some, interesting)**

**Anko – 34 (Looks like she'll just stay as Naruto's nee-chan)**

**Yugito – 31 (Damn I thought for a moment we might have a blonde three-some going on)**

**Tayuya – 7 (Foul mouth redhead doesn't get the "innocent" blonde)**

**Kin – 4 (Wow, she got more than three votes?)**

**That's it, that's all leave any and all comments and complaints in the reviews section just watch the language. **


End file.
